Charles “Honi” Coles (April 2, 1911 – November 12, 1992) was an American actor and tap dancer. He was best known for his role as Tito Suarez in the film Dirty Dancing.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Coles developed his high-speed rhythm tapping on the streets of his hometown. He first went to New York City as one of the Three Millers, who were known for their intricate and difficult dance steps executed on tiny platforms. He later returned to headline at the Apollo Theater.
In 1940, while dancing with Cab Calloway’s band, he met and teamed with Charles “Cholly” Atkins. As Coles & Atkins, their routine opened with a fast-paced song and tap number, followed by a precision swing dance, a soft shoe, and a tap-challenge. Their partnership lasted nineteen years.
Coles placed tap in the world of concert art when he performed in the Joffrey Ballet’s production of Agnes de Mille’s Conversations about the Dance.
Coles made his Broadway debut in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949. He also appeared in Bubbling Brown Sugar and My One and Only, for which he received both the Tony and Drama Desk Award for his performance.
During the 1980s, Coles taught dance and dance history at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and George Washington University.
Coles was a close associate of tap dancer Brenda Bufalino, who was instrumental in helping him rebuild his career in the early 1970s. The American Tap Dance Orchestra was and founded by Bufalino along with Tony Waag Coles in 1986 as a tax exempt 501c3 charitable organization. During that time the Orchestra performed in hundreds of concert, stage, and film projects and thrilled audiences around the world. From 1989 to 1995, the company also operated Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center in New York City and presented ongoing classes, performances, and related activities. Coles also had a part in the 1987 hit movie Dirty Dancing.
In 1991, Coles was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George H.W. Bush. Charles Honi Coles died from cancer on November 12, 1992. He was inducted, posthumously, into the Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. His wife Marian Edwards Coles died on November 6, 2009. While he was performing “My One and Only” Charles had a stroke.
Charles “Cholly” Atkins (September 30, 1913 – April 19, 2003) was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label.
Born Charles Sylvan Atkinson, a native of Pratt City, Alabama, Cholly Atkins began dancing in the late 1930s before entering military service in 1942 during World War II. Upon leaving the U.S. Army. Atkins first found fame as one-half of Atkins & Coles, a top vaudeville dance act with partner Charles “Honi” Coles, debuting at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Atkins and Coles toured extensively nationally and internationally, performing in showcases with major jazz and swing bands, including those led by Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and Lionel Hampton. The pair also performed from 1949 to 1952 on Broadway in the stage production, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
In the mid-1950s, Cholly began teaching dance steps to the Cadillacs, Shirelles, Moonglows, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, Little Anthony & The Imperials, and other vocal groups. His dance steps were a new style coined “vocal choreography”, as singers enhanced their vocal performances with stylish combinations of gestures and steps. After working as a freelance choreographer in 1962 for The Miracles, Atkins was hired by Berry Gordy to work as a Motown choreographer in 1964, and set about developing the routines that would later become the trademark moves of other Motown acts like The Supremes, The Temptations (Atkins was also featured in the video for their hit single “Lady Soul”), The Four Tops, The Marvelettes, Gladys Knight & The Pips and others. Atkins would, in fact, continue working with Motown artists well into the 1980s. He choreographed for non-Motown artists as well, namely the dance routines of The Cadillacs in the 1950s, and the Sylvers, as well as The O’Jays during the mid-1970s, appearing with them on an episode of Soul Train. He also worked with Detroit rock band DC Drive and is featured in the “You Need Love” video. Cholly is also known by a few Detroit dancers to create the Partner dance known as the Graystone, named after the great Graystone Ballroom. The dance rhythm is slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, quick.
In 1989, Atkins received a Tony Award for choreographing the Broadway show Black and Blue. He also accepted a 1993 National Endowment for the Arts three-year fellowship to tour colleges and universities teaching vocal choreography. He continued to teach dance in Las Vegas until February 2003.
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2003, Atkins died of the cancer several weeks later on April 19, 2003 Las Vegas, Nevada. He was five months short of his 90th birthday.