As the music of "42nd Street" filled the tap studio at Bruckman's School of Dance in McCandless, Carla Hibbs kicked off her fuzzy slippers, put her hands on her hips and started dancing.

Soon, Charles "Chick" Bruckman, 79, joined his daughter, and together they tapped out the minutes-long "signature" dance routine senior students at the Bruckman's look forward to performing at the school's annual recital in June.

Happily winded, Ms. Hibbs smiled at her father, who, along with her mother, Elda Mae Bruckman, 77, is gearing up for the school's 60th annual recital Saturday.

While Mr. Bruckman established the school five years before he married Elda Mae in 1954, they have been running it together for more than five decades. He teaches tap and jazz and she teaches ballet.

Tomorrow is their 55th wedding anniversary.

"Everyone who meets them loves them," Ms. Hibbs said of her parents. "People see the genuineness of them and that they'll do anything for each other."

Together, the Bruckmans raised three girls, all of whom studied dance with their parents; they supported the arts in the North Boroughs and grew their dance studio.

They still teach dozens of children -- from toddlers to seniors -- every week in their studios on Perry Highway and have no plans to stop anytime soon.

Giving children a place to express themselves, to learn about the arts and to be proud of their accomplishments has always been a priority for the Bruckmans.

"Children need something," Mrs. Bruckman said, adding that broken homes and difficult situations at school make dance that much more important. "They need to forget the worries of the day."

Nick Coppula, 21, studied with the Bruckmans throughout his childhood, and said they were instrumental in helping him realize his potential as a ballet dancer.

"The really got me into dance," said Mr. Coppula, who is entering his fourth season as a corps dancer with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Mr. Coppula said his years studying tap and jazz with Mr. Bruckman showed him it was possible for a male to succeed as a dancer in predominantly female field.

"I owe a lot to him," Mr. Coppula said. "He taught me so much."

Mr. Bruckman said he started studying at age 6. In an age when being left-handed was discouraged, he said he was doubly cursed with being extremely "left-sided."

His family sent him to a dance school in Bellevue with the hope that he would learn to better use his right side.

"My dad was an athlete and he thought it would help," Mr. Bruckman said. "And it worked."

He went on to study with all of Pittsburgh's master dance teachers of the day: Frank Eckl, Karl Heinrich, Hela Slavinska, Lou Starr, Roy Palmer, Tiny Mock and Vera Liebau, who taught musical comedy.

He was a member of the former Pittsburgh Civic Ballet and also studied with Jack Stanley, Roy and Jane Dodge, Ernest Carlos, Henry Letang and June Taylor in New York.

After graduating from Avalon High School in 1948, he joined the Army under the Selective Service Act, which meant he would serve only one year stateside.

During that time, he was accepted into the Army Special Service, where he performed and helped produce shows for servicemen. He eventually ran a servicemen's club.

He started teaching locally in 1949, after his discharge.

All the while, Mrs. Bruckman was studying music and voice with Mr. and Mrs. Fred J. Lissfelt, of Shadyside, in addition to studying dance with Frank Eckl in Pittsburgh. She also studied in New York with Thalia Mara, Christine Hennessey, Jo Rowan, Gus Giordano and Rhett Dennis at Luigi's.

When Mrs. Bruckman was a senior at Avonworth High School, she learned about a performer who needed a vocalist for a variety act.

She accepted the job and met her future husband on stage at the Chartiers Valley Country Club.

After the performance, Mr. Bruckman gathered up all the music, including Elda Mae's. Being a gentleman, and a little smitten, he called her and made arrangements to return it a few days later.

"I told her I had tickets to the Ice Capades and asked her if she'd like to go," Mr. Bruckman said, smiling. "But, I didn't have tickets to the Ice Capades."

He quickly got the tickets, though, and Mrs. Bruckman knew she was dealing with someone special.

"He was different from the other boys," she said. "He wanted to talk about dance and ballet."

The couple went steady for 21?2 years before becoming engaged for another two years.

Once they married, they worked together to make a go of the dance school Mr. Bruckman had already started.

They bought a 11?2-story house on Perry Highway and, over several decades, turned it into what is now a two-story dance studio.

"I remember being here and just going into class wherever," Ms. Hibbs said. "It didn't matter if they were the small ones or the bigger ones."

Mr. Bruckman was president of the former North Hills Performing Arts group for 25 years and choreographed for the North Star Players, North Allegheny High School musicals and sponsored and choreographed for the North Allegheny marching band's dance team until the late 1990s.

His wife and his girls helped him every step of the way.

"At one point or another, we all taught here," Ms. Hibbs said.

Through the years, the Bruckmans" wove a love of dance and the arts into everything they did. Until last year, they closed each recital waltzing to Irving Berlin's song, "Always," which he wrote in 1925 as a wedding gift for his bride.

Even though they won't perform the waltz again this year because Mrs. Bruckman needs knee surgery, the music they have always made together will go on.

"He once told me he'll dance until he's 80," Mrs. Bruckman said. Then she smiled and pointed her index finger for effect before laughing. "I told him, 'You better!' "