Charles Coles

American actor and tap dancer (1911–1992)

Charles "Honi" Coles (April 2, 1911 – November 12, 1992) was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precision, high speed tapping, and a close to the floor style where "the legs and feet did the work". Coles was also half of the professional tap dancing duo Coles and Atkins, whose specialty was performing with elegant style through various tap steps such as "swing dance", "over the top", "bebop", "buck and wing", and "slow drag". Coles was also a tap dancing companion of tap dancer Brenda Bufalino, the founder and director of the American Tap Dance Foundation. During his career, Coles was awarded the Dance Magazine Award in 1985, the Capezio Award for lifetime achievement in dance in 1988, and the National Medal of the Arts by President George H. W. Bush in 1991. When Coles was a child, his sister took care of him and gave Coles the nickname "Honey". Later, when he was around 14 or 15 years old, Coles belonged to a club called the Jolly Buccaneers and changed the spelling of his nickname to "Honi". They were popular for their fast moves, including over the tops, barrel turns, and wings, on six foot high pedestals. "Honi" Coles's specialty was precision and fast rhythm steps, while Atkins was an expert wing dancer known as "the man with the moves". The duo loved working with Jo Jones because he showed respect for dancers and knew how to accompany and provide music support for tap. In 1962, Coles performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, and his performance brought veteran members of the Copasetics back to the stage. Members of the Copasetics mentored and performed with the proceeding generation of female tap pioneers, including Brenda Bufalino, Jane Goldberg, and Deborah Mitchell.

Coles joined the tour of Bubbling Brown Sugar and performed the role of John Sage in 1976. He regained his popularity as a soloist, and was able to perform at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall. In 1978, after receiving compliments for his performance in the Joffrey Ballet production of Agnes de Mille's Conversations on the Dance, Coles emphasized the influence of tap dance in the world of concert dance. After the success of the documentary Great Feats of Feet in 1977, Coles joined Brenda Bufalino in their duet concert of The Morton Gould Tap Concerto and toured the United States and England. Singing, Swinging, and Winging was Bufalino's first major performance, and Honi Coles, as a guest tap dancer, appeared midway through the second half of the program with Honi's Suite. Honi's Suite is a combination of musical compositions, monologue, and choreography performed by Bufalino and Coles, including "Let's Dance," "Get Yourself Another Guy," "Don't Get Caught Short on Love," "Warm Feet," and the signature soft shoe of Coles and Atkins–"Taking A Chance On Love." After Singing, Swinging, and Winging, Coles continued to work with Bufalino. In 1979, they created a tap choreography for The Morton Gourt Tap Concerto, performed with the Brooklyn Academy Philharmonic Orchestra. Following the success of this performance, they collaborated to choreograph Sounds of Music. Their successful collaboration highlighted the interplay of different races within the tap community. Bufalino said about their collaboration and friendship, "the white vaudevillian, the black vaudevillian. It was a wonderful show but it was hard to book because we were black and white." When being asked about the reason he taught his tapping skill to a white woman, specifically Bufalino, Coles responded to his peers, "Because no blacks want it, and she does, and because nobody else can do it, and she can." The connection and creative ties between Coles and Bufalino were continued for the next fifteen years. In 1983, Coles performed with Tommy Tune in My One and Only, a Broadway musical show at the St. James Theater. After his show stopping duet with Tune, Coles was reputed to have "an understated exercise in precise terpsichorean pointillism". Jack Kroll described Coles's feet in Newsweek as "have the delicacy and power of a master pianist's hands." In 1984, Coles appeared in Jane Goldberg's The Tapping Talk Show, which was presented at the Village Gate from March 2 to March 3. The show was produced by Pamela Koslow and directed by Mercedes Ellington, featuring the guests Cookie Cook, Marion Coles, Buster Brown, Chinky Grimes, and Beverly Wasser. The Tapping Talk Show combined both veteran and female tap dancers. During the 1980s, also Coles taught dance and dance history at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and George Washington University.

In 1944, Coles married Marion Evelyn Edwards, a dancer in the Number One chorus at the Apollo Theater, and together, Coles and his wife had two children. On November 12, 1992, Charles "Honi" Coles died from cancer in Queens County, New York, aged 81. On November 6, 2009, his wife Marion Coles died in Queens County, New York, at the age of 94.

In 1983, Coles received the Tony Award, Fred Astaire Award, and Drama Desk Award for best featured actor and dancer in My One and Only, a popular Broadway musical starring Tommy Tune. Coles was awarded the Dance Magazine Award in 1985 and the Capezio Award for lifetime achievement in dance in 1988. In 1991, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George H. W. Bush.