Cholly Atkins Quotes

• You had to give, uh, a lot of consideration to the fact that, uh, the artist had to come back into the mike area and start singing, especially the background singers, you know. And you had to make sure they had a couple of bars of music in order to catch their breath. And uh, in many cases a lot of choreographers didn't give that, uh, the proper thought.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Couple   Artist   Order  

  1512

• Well, the difference in working with the Supremes and the other girl groups like Martha and the Vandellas, and the Marvelettes, you let the material dictate to you, uh, really, how you worked with the group, and with the talent, and the personalities. All of these things was instrumental in having all of the groups, uh, retain their own identity. Uh, and, and the material had a lot to do with it, you know.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Girl   Differences   Personality  

  5167

• In vocal choreography you had to give a lot of consideration to the fact that you were working with singers and not dancers. But you had to make singers look like they were dancers, and to make the movements as natural as possible, and there to be an association with the movement, uh, somewhat to what the lyric was saying.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Giving   Dancer   Looks  

  460

• There's a lot that goes into training, singers to eventually become performers. There's, projection, uh, which in many cases the artist was never concerned about.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Artist   Training   Singers  

  1864

• Your background has a lot to do with your approach to movement.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Movement   Backgrounds   Approach  

  1582

• Well, the most important thing in choreographing for a specific tune is to get the story line and try to make your movements, rather than just actual movements, let them become more or less a physical drama to, to what they were singing about. And uh, also, uh, honor the beat and the rhythmic pattern of the musical track.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Drama   Track   Musical  

  4553

• So it would be a happy marriage between the movement and the vocal and uh, this is the thing that you give a lot of consideration to.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Giving   Movement   Would Be  

  1900

• speaking with, uh, about the vocal choreography, one of the first groups that I worked with was a group called the Cadillacs, which was uh, an exceptionally talented group. They all moved well and they sort of established Cholly Atkins's style. In other words they basically put me on the map, and everybody would look at them and see their choreography and they wanted to know who did it, so they would tell them.

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  Cholly Atkins

  Style   Groups   Looks  

  981

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