Cholly Atkins (1913-2003)

April 22, 2010 
/ Contributed By: Paula J. Peters

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Choly Atkins and Honi Coles

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Cholly Atkins, born Charles Atkinson in Pratt City, Alabama, was a tap and jazz dancer/choreographer best known for his contributions as the house choreographer and coach for Motown dancing vocal groups from 1965 to 1971. Atkins was responsible for creating the synchronized classic jazz and rhythm-tap (minus the taps) routines for groups including Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Supremes, and The Temptations. To create his choreographic style, Atkins drew from vernacular dances such as the Charleston, Suzy-Z, and his early experiences choreographing chorus line routines on the Vaudeville circuit. His precise, choreographic style enabled Motown singers to perform synchronized, lyric-specific dance breaks and have enough breath left to continue singing.

Before his years with Motown, Atkinsโ€™ best-known contribution to tap dancing was his partnership with legendary tap dancer Honi Coles from the 1940s through the 1960s. Together, they created โ€œClass Act,โ€ a dance routine that emerged out of the soft shoe and evolved into the duoโ€™s trademark style of precise, polished tap dance routines. Atkins and Cole performed at the Cotton Club and appeared with the big bands of Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Billy Eckstine. Atkins and Cole performed their show-stopping choreography in the Broadway musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which ran between 1949 and 1953.

The decline of tap dance popularity began around 1944 with the advent of ballet choreography in Broadway shows and Hollywood films. In 1954, due to the lack of performing work available, Atkins became head of the tap department at the Katherine Dunham School of Arts and Research in New York City. In 1988, tap dancer Dianne Walker convinced Atkins to participate in the Broadway show Black and Blue. Atkins had not tapped since 1965 but agreed to redo three soft-shoe numbers titled โ€œMemories of You,โ€ โ€œAfter Youโ€™ve Gone,โ€ and โ€œIโ€™m Confessinโ€ for the production. Atkinsโ€™ choreography in Black and Blue won a Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1989. That same year, he was asked to develop Motown-style choreography for the teen group New Kids on the Block.

Cholly Atkins built the Motown dancing look of the 1960s, but more importantly, he reshaped popular vernacular dances into performing acts that transcended the test of time. The smooth, polished look recognizable in rock and roll stage acts today are direct descendants of the aesthetic look and choreographic methods of Cholly Atkins.

Cholly Atkins died in 2003 at the age of 89 in Las Vegas.

About the Author

Author Profile

Paula J. Peters is currently a M.F.A. candidate in Dance at the University of Washington. Prior to completing her B.F.A. in Dance through the Professional Dancers Program at Cornish College of the Arts, Ms. Peters performed professionally with Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle, Washington for fourteen years; dancing and staging works by choreographers of national prominence. She has taught ballet, jazz and modern dance as a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington and as an adjunct instructor at Cornish College of the Arts. Ms. Petersโ€™ M.F.A. thesis, โ€œAll That Jazz: Forces and Figures in the American Popular Entertainment Industry,โ€ investigates the deep contributions that African American dancers/choreographers have made to the American popular entertainment industry.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Peters, P. (2010, April 22). Cholly Atkins (1913-2003). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/atkins-cholly-1913-2003/

Source of the Author's Information:

Cholly Atkins and Jacqui Malone, Class Act: The Jazz Life of
Choreographer Cholly Atkins
(New York: Columbia University Press,
2001); Jacqui Malone, Steppinโ€™ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of
African American Dance
(Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois
Press, 1996); Timothy White, โ€œCholly Atkins: Jazz Hoofing & Hip-Hop
Heritage,โ€ Billboard 113:2 (June 2001).

Further Reading