Motown choreographer, Tony winner Atkins dies

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

When you see modern pop groups such as Boyz II Men and In Sync perform intricate dance moves to match their song lyrics, you see the enduring influence of jazz dancer and choreography Cholly Atkins.

"Before my husband came along, groups stood in a line on stage, sang and maybe snapped their fingers and swayed a little," Maye Atkinson said. "In the mid-1950s Cholly began teaching performers vocal choreography, and that started a whole new music genre."

Tony Award-winning choreographer Cholly "Pops" Atkins, who as staff choreographer for Motown Records gave the Supremes, the Temptations and Gladys Knight and the Pips their moves, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer at a local health care center. He was 89.

There will be no services for the Las Vegas resident of 28 years, whose real name was Charles Atkinson.

Starting his career as a singing waiter in Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1920s, Atkins became part of one of the most noted tap dance duos of the 20th century when he teamed with Charles "Honi" Coles to form Coles and Atkins.

In addition to work in motion pictures and on Broadway, Coles and Atkins performed at the Flamingo hotel with Pearl Bailey in the 1950s, at a time when black performers were not allowed to stay in the segregated Las Vegas Strip hotels. Atkins took it in stride.

"Those are days you'd like to look back on and laugh," Atkins told the Sun in 1993. "A lot of people are still bitter, and rightly so. But life goes on."

As his jazz and tap dance career was winding down in the 1950s, Atkins began teaching doo-wop groups dance moves.

In the early 1960s Atkins went to work for the newly formed Motown Records with the assignment of incorporating dance into the singing acts to bolster their stage presence.

But it was not until late in his career that Atkins was recognized for many of his accomplishments.

In 1989 he won the Best Choreography Tony for the Broadway musical "Black and Blue." In 1998, he won the Innovator Award from the American Choreography Association.

Born Sept. 30, 1913, in Pratt City, Ala., Atkins learned tap dancing from a Buffalo, N.Y., high school physical education teacher.

Atkins gained his first measure of national fame in the 1930s, teaming with William Porter in a dance duo called The Rhythm Pals. In the 1936 he appeared in his first motion picture, "San Francisco."

After a stint in the Army, Atkins teamed with Coles, and the pair became famous for their "soft shoe" number, which they had added to the act to let them catch their breath between high-energy numbers. It became their signature piece. Coles died in November 1992.

In Las Vegas, Atkins taught dance until last December, when he was hospitalized with pneumonia. In February Atkins was diagnosed with cancer.

"I don't think my husband ever felt that anything he did was historic -- he just thought of himself as a working dancer," Maye Atkinson said. "He had a gentle modesty, and he did what he loved to do."

In addition to his wife, Atkins is survived by a son, Curtis Pat Sherrod of Las Vegas; a daughter Dee Sherrod of North Hollywood, Calif.; and a grandson, Sean Sherrod of North Hollywood.

The family said donations can be made in Atkins' memory to the American Cancer Society.

Palm Mortuary-Jones handled the arrangements.