(Diane Ross and "Pops" Gordy, Christmas 1963)
It may take more commitment than I'm up for but within the upcoming week, I hope to present my own version of Dancing With The Stars. Not because I'm a fan of the television reality show but because it's way past time for the photo repository to be emptied.
You should expect to see Katherine Dunham dancers and the usual suspects like Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell and Geoffrey Holder. You'll also see the obscure and long forgotten dancers like Cincinnati's own Doug Crutchfield, Van Vechten model Allen Meadows, and by way of Senegal - Feral Benga, the "toast" of Paris in the 20's. Most of the readers here know that Miss Fredi Washington was a dancer well before she stormed Hollywood, but are you familiar with her partner Al Moore?
I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew by promising that they'll all be here next week but I plan to work diligently in making sure that happens. You know how divas are! They'll show up when they feel like it!
To kick off the season, we have a young Diana Ross (then still known as Diane) and Berry "Pops" Gordy, Sr (father of the Motown president). Taken during the Christmas season of 1963 at Detroit's Graystone Ballroom, Ross was all about ingratiating herself with the family. In the upcoming year, the twenty year-old songstress would soon experience the payoff she'd been striving toward.
But everyone needs a break! Perhaps she took time out to Shing-a-ling or Boog-a-loo? She might be teaching Pops to Hully Gully? Or maybe she's just doing a premature Victory Dance!
I look forward to it.
Posted by: Allen Wright | October 30, 2011 at 07:08 PM
Great stuff! I look forward to it!
Posted by: Brandon | October 30, 2011 at 09:20 PM
Thanks soo much for the accurate info. on our history. Now do Sterling & Raymond St. Jacques.
Posted by: Gigi Richardson | January 09, 2012 at 05:04 AM