To all Dancers, dance enthusiasts and tap dancers, join us in celebrating the Birthday of Marion Evelyn Coles today 03-15-1915.
The wife of international tap artist CharlesĀ Honi Coles.
Marion Evelyn Edwards was born in Burlington, Vermont, the elder of two daughters. The family moved to Harlem, NY, when Marion was three, and before she was a teenager she had begun competing in neighborhood Charleston contests.
Marion began her professional dancing career as a lindy hop dancer with the ballroom team of Taylor and Edwards. Marion was asked to join Ristina Banks’ chorus line, one of the premier ensembles of women dancers in the African American Theatre circuit. The groups popularity led them to become the number one stock chorus line at the world famous Apollo Theatre.
At the onset of the 1980s Marion resumed her professional dance career as a member of Jane Goldberg’s Changing Times Tap Company, which received rave reviews in the U.S. and Europe. Starting in 1986, she performed and served as Artistic Director of the Silver Belles, founded by Geri Kennedy. The group, including Bertye Lou Wood, Cleo Hayes, Faye Ray, and Elaine Ellis in addition to Marion, was involved in numerous humanitarian causes, performed extensively, and was featured in the documentary Been Rich All My Life.
For the full Bio click http://thetapcenter.org/TapLegacy/newsletter-archive/