Tap Dogs, the Australian dance revue that settled into an Off-Broadway run at the Union Square Theatre this spring after a North American tour, recently picked up a Drama Desk nomination for Dein Perry's choreography.

Fans of the show will also want to check out the ensemble's appearance tonight, May 12, on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," WNBC-TV (check listings for time).

Created and choreographed by Dein Perry, Tap Dogs is described as "a 90-minute, rough, tough and rocking reinvention of tap for the 90's."

Perry trained to be an industrial machinist in the steel town of Newcastle but got his big break when he was cast in the long-running Sydney production of 42nd Street. With friends he later formed the group "Tap Brothers" and went on to choreograph Hot Shoe Shuffle on London's West End, for which he received a 1985 Olivier Award.

Perry then teamed up with designer/choreographer Nigel Triffitt to create Tap Dogs, which played at the Sydney Theatre Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and the West End, leading to a second Olivier for Perry in 1996. The TAP DOGS are: creator/choreographer Dein Perry, Darren Disney, Christopher Horsey, Drew Kaluski, Ben Read, Nathan Sheens, along with Billy Burke, Jeremy Kiesman and Gil Stroming. Directed and designed by Nigel Triffitt, Dogs offers lighting by David Murray, sound by Darryl Lewis, and a score (performed live) by Andrew Wilkie.

-- By David Lefkowitz