Happy Birthday Charles "Honi" Coles 1911-1992...Coles was a tap dancer of exceptional elegance and precision. Historian Sally Sommer described his dancing this way, "He was a supreme illusionist. He appeared to float and do nothing at all while his feet chattered complex rhythms below." He learned to tap dance on the streets of Philadelphia as a child where dancers challenged each other in time step "cutting" contests, honing his skills enough to make his New York debut with the Three Millers, a group that performed intricate, precision moves atop 6 foot high platforms, in 1931.
He returned to Philadelphia determined to perfect his technique when he learned that his partners had hired another dancer to replace him. He returned to New York in 1934 with new confidence, performing at the Harlem Opera House and The Apollo Theater. He was reputed to have the fastest feet in show business, able to cram a flurry of steps into a bar of music (unusual for someone of his height of 6'2") and he was hailed as one of the most graceful dancers ever seen at the Hoofers Club, a seriously competitive club for tap dancers.
From 1936-1939, Coles performed with the Lucky Seven Trio, a group that tapped on large cubes shaped like dice with as many as ten costume changes during the performance. The trio toured with Count Basie and Duke Ellington as Coles continued to polish his style, mixing high speed tapping with an easy elegance where the legs and feet did all of the work. It was in 1940 while working as a soloist with Cab Calloway that Coles met Charles "Cholly" Atkins, also working with Calloway. Both men participated in WW2 and returned home to form Coles and Atkins, a partnership that would last for 19 years.
Coles and Atkins was a class act with elegant, tailored suits and a routine that would showcase the individual talents and perfectly synchronized partnership of the two dancers. A typical performance would start off with a fast-paced song and tap routine moving into a precision swing dance and soft shoe then ending with a tap challenge. Throughout the 40's the duo appeared with Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine and Count Basie. In 1949 they appeared on Broadway in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds", stopping the show with the number "Mamie is Mimi", to which choreographer Agnes DeMille added a ballet dancer-a harbinger of the change that would come to Broadway dancing.
When the show closed in 1951, more balletic dancing integrated into the plot had taken the place of tap in most shows and the big band era was coming to a close. Coles opened a dance studio with tap dancer Pete Nugent from 1954-1955, closing due to the decline in interest in tap dancing. Coles and Atkins ended their partnership in 1960 and for the next 16 years, Coles worked as the production stage manager for the Apollo Theater, served as the president of the Negro Actors Guild and continued his association with the Copasetics, a fraternity of tap dancers which he had helped to found in 1949.
In the 1970's Cole collaborated with Brenda Bufalino in their duet concert of the Morton Gould Tap Concerto, touring the United States and England, reintroducing tap as an art form. He joined the touring production of "Bubblin; Brown Sugar" in 1976, had solo performances at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall. and performed with the Joffrey Ballet in Agnes DeMille's "Conversation on the Dance" in 1978. At the age of 72, he won a Tony Award Fred, Astaire Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in "My One and Only." In 1991, a year before his death, he was awarded the National Metal of Arts.
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| Coles and Atkins |
Coles is the taller dancer
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