While attending college, Frank began dancing in stage productions, and her first show was "Minnie's Boys," followed by "Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America." In 1978, she moved to San Francisco, California and by the early 1980s was appearing regularly in musical shows, including: "Dames At Sea," "Babes In Arms," "42nd Street" with Diablo Civic Light Opera (DLOC), "5,6,7,8," and "Mack And Mabel." She has tap danced professionally over the years with The San Francisco Tap Troupe, Six Feet a Tap Trio (Wayne Doba, Rodney Price), Pedal Extremities (Walter Freeman, Mark Mendonca, Michael Rainey), Tapology (Patti Meagher), The Rhythm Rascals (Walter Freeman), Mulligan and Whitmore "Tops in Taps" (Chester Whitmore), The Rhythm Pals (Alfred Desio), and with Greg Gast. In 1989, 1990 and 1991, Frank produced, directed, and danced in an all-star tap revue
Jazz Tap! featuring the
Nicholas Brothers,
Savion Glover,
Arthur Duncan, Jeni LeGon and
Brenda Bufalino. The show was performed at Kimball's East and the Sun Valley Lodge (where the movie
Sun Valley Serenade took place). In 1996, she began learning the
Lindy Hop after she saw the English dance group The Jiving Lindy Hoppers perform. She partnered with Simon Selmon and moved to the United Kingdom for two years. She and Selmon made many appearances on television, in movies, on the radio, at festivals and special events. The team's high point came when they toured fifty-one European cities as the dance act for the big band stage show
In The Mood – A Tribute to Glenn Miller. In the US, Frank has performed at such prestigious venues as Broadway's
42nd Street, at the
Hollywood Bowl, at
Disneyland and at the world-famous Derby in Hollywood. Currently, she regularly performs her tap dance routines at downtown Los Angeles's 1920s-themed nightclub Maxwell DeMille's Cicada Club, housed inside the historic 1928
art deco James Oviatt Building. She teaches private and group dance lessons in Los Angeles and at international dance camps, works on her tap documentary and produces instructional dance DVDs.
Historian In 1990, Rusty's book
TAP! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900–1955, was published in hardcover by William Morrow Press and in In March 1995, was reissued in soft cover by
Da Capo Press. Actor and tap dancer
Gregory Hines wrote the foreword to the book, for which she interviewed 30 tap-dance artists, including
Ann Miller,
Shirley Temple and
Donald O'Connor. She has contributed to the
Smithsonian Institution's Jazz Oral History project, along with the
Encyclopædia Britannica, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Dance, The
American National Biography, the
Great Danish Encyclopedia, the jazz history
Jazz: The First Century, published by William Morrow and Company, and
Discover Jazz, published by Pearson. Along with award-winning filmmaker
Arthur Dong, Rusty is co-producing the documentary,
TAP! Tempo of America. They were the recipients of a
National Endowment for the Arts grant to aid in making this dance documentary. She has also appeared in numerous dance documentaries, including the
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers box set documentary for
Warner Home Video, the
BBC's
Fascinating Rhythms – The Story of Tap, and
This Joint is Jumpin' for
Bravo. • California Institute of Contemporary Arts grant (for her in-progress documentary
TAP! Tempo of America) • 2015 – Inducted into the Camp Hollywood Swing Dance Hall of Fame • 2008 – Inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame • 2007 – "Tradition in Tap Award" for Outstanding Achievements and Significant Contribution to the Art and Tradition of Tap Dance • 2006 – "The Tap Preservation Award" from New York's American Tap Dance Foundation • 2002 – "The Historic Preservation Award" from The Art Deco Society of California • 1992 – "Soul of Shipley" award from National Association of Dance & Affiliated Artists (NAADA) • 1991 – "Dance in Action" award for Contribution in Dance ==References==