The rattle of tap shoes fills the small black box theatre, as dancers step along to the swing jazz accompaniment. The tempo for this song, played by a pianist and a drummer hitting a high hat, is fast. And their happy feet are even faster, a combination of lightning quick heel and toe movements.

“Watch the rhythm,” tap dance legend Savion Glover instructs from the back of the room.

He bounces his foot up and down: one tap, two taps, three taps, four. If there’s anyone who can help these teens and young adults stay on beat, it’s Glover. The 45-year-old Broadway performer and choreographer is essentially a human metronome, each step a pulse.

He’s teaching the youngsters to move to the beat of their own rhythmic hearts.

“The arts are very important as a part of the soul,” Glover says. “We would be nothing if someone wasn’t an artist or artistic.”

Glover’s students are part of New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s young artist summer intensive program. Glover serves on NJPAC’s Board of Directors, and helps run the summer initiative. At the end of each summer, the students put on an elaborate production at the theater. This year, they’ll star in a reimagining of the Broadway show that made Glover famous in 1984: “The Tap Dance Kid" — the story of a young boy who dreams of becoming a tap dancer, but first he must convince his father to let him pursue his passion.

Only for this production, Glover is the director.

Tap dance legend, Savion Glover, directs the next generation of dancers in a reboot of "The Tap Dance Kid"

“My goal is to allow (the show) to feel presently nostalgic,” Glover says.

The musical will stay true to the original plot, but it will feel more in tune with modern times.

“Some of the lyrics may have been something like ‘Hey, I don’t have time. Write me a note and I’ll get back to you’, (now) we’re just saying ‘why don’t you just shoot me a text’,” Glover says.

The Newark native grew up admiring legendary dancers like Gregory Hines and Jimmy Slide. Hines once called Glover the “greatest tap dancer that ever lived.” Now, nearly four dozen students — who auditioned for the program — are looking up to him for direction, in a moment that truly embodies what it means to come full circle.

“Working with Savion is very fun, and very educational,” 14-year-old Ellis Foreman, who plays the lead role, Willie, says.

Foreman is ecstatic to take on the role. Glover’s portrayal of the same character on Broadway catapulted him to national fame. At the time, he was just 10 years old. He later went on to win a Tony Award for his choreography in the 1996 musical “Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk.”

More recently, Glover has appeared in the movies “Happy Feet” and “Happy Feet 2”, as the motion capture choreographer for character, Mumble, as well as the reality dance competition “So You Think You Can Dance” as a choreographer. He returned to Broadway to choreograph the well-reviewed, but short-lived musical “Shuffle Along,” for which he was again nominated for a Tony.

Glover brings that same passion and meticulous work ethic when he’s teaching this new generation of dancers.

“It’s definitely a lot of work,” Foreman says, “but at the end of the day, it will be worth it.”

Foreman and his fellow cast members spend five hours a day, five days a week nailing the show’s choreography, learning to sing the songs and memorize the lines.

Tap dance legend, Savion Glover, directs the next generation of dancers in a reboot of "The Tap Dance Kid"

Glover, as teacher, is down-to-earth and patient, but he pushes his students to feel the conviction in the roles they play.

“This needs to be more,” Glover says, while the students rehearse one of the show’s musical numbers, “What is this? What is going on here?”

He’s asking them to think about ways to fill the space onstage with more dancing and movement.

Glover’s tips for improving their performance could seem intimidating to the kids — coming from a dance genius and all — but the students take his input in stride.

“I like to be corrected because it lets me know how to do it better,” Jocelyn Creekmur, a 19-year-old Montclair State University theatre student says, “I’m always striving to be better, do it a different way, open up my horizon, open up my perspective.”

Ellis Foreman and Jocelyn Creekmur (left to right) star in NJPAC's reimagining of Broadway musical "The Tap Dance Kid."

Some may say the students have some pretty big tap shoes to fill. But Glover doesn’t see it that way. He says there’s no need to compare his students to himself or his storied career.

“They are our future,” Glover says, while explaining why the next generation of dancers have the potential to become legendary artists in their own right, “I’m happy that they are smarter...that they are able to understand how to take better advantage of their options.”

Glover knows that programs like this have not always been readily available in Newark.

While New Jersey mandates that all schools must offer visual and performing arts courses in some form, NJPAC Chief Executive Officer, John Schreiber says not all students have the same access to fully comprehensive arts programs. In addition to the summer youth program, Schreiber says NJPAC offers 220 10-to-12-week arts residencies at schools in the Greater Newark Area.

“When somebody like [Savion Glover] says ‘your talent is worth nurturing, you are someone who is part of a creative community, you have responsibilities to me and to your fellow actors,' all that stuff just makes a kid so much stronger,” Schreiber says.

“The Tap Dance Kid” runs Sept. 13, 14 and 15 at NJPAC. You can find tickets here.

Tennyson Donnie Coleman may be reached at tcoleman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @TennysonTV. Find him on Facebook. Have a tip? Let us know at nj.com/tips.