Class ACT: The Jazz Life of Choreographer Cholly AtkinsPaperback, 9 April 2003

Cholly Atkins's career has spanned an extraordinary era of American dance. With his partner, Honi Coles, Cholly toured the country, performing with such jazz masters as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Count Basie. In the fifties, Cholly created the new specialization of "vocal choreography," teaching such artists as the Supremes, the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Marvin Gaye how to perform their music by adding rhythmical dance steps drawn from twentieth-century American dance, from the Charleston to rhythm tap. Chronicling the rise, near demise, and rediscovery of tap dancing, the book is both an engaging biography and a rich cultural history.