Class Act

Amazon.com Price: $28.59 (as of 09/11/2019 12:38 PST- Details)

Description

Cholly Atkins’s career has spanned an odd era of American dance. He started performing all the way through Prohibition and continued his apprenticeship in vaudeville, in nightclubs, and within the army all the way through World War II. Along with his partner, Honi Coles, Cholly toured the country, performing with such jazz masters as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Count Basie. As tap reached a nadir within the fifties, Cholly created the brand new specialization of “vocal choreography,” teaching rhythm-and-blues singers learn how to perform their music by adding rhythmical dance steps drawn from twentieth-century American dance, from the Charleston to rhythm tap. For the burgeoning Motown record label, Cholly taught such artists as the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Marvin Gaye to command the stage in ways that would toughen their performances and “sell” their songs.

Class Act tells of Cholly’s boyhood and coming of age, his entry into the dance world of New York City, his performing triumphs and personal tragedies, and the career transformations that won him gold records and a Tony for choreographing Black and Blue on Broadway. Chronicling the upward push, near demise, and rediscovery of tap dancing, the book is both an engaging biography and a wealthy cultural history.


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