![]() Įlaine Ellis (Novem– December 21, 2013) was born in Panama and traveled to New York with her family at a young age. She was also the dance director of the Silver Belles. In 2002, Coles was awarded an honorary degree from Queens College for her dedication to her students. She was known for mentally choreographing and practicing dance routines, and to physically perform the steps afterwards. Marion became a dance teacher of rhythm dance, black chorus line style, and taught tap seminars across the country. She danced with "Round the World" tours and also toured with Leonard Reed. Coles was a leader in the dancer's strike at the Apollo. She toured as a lindy hopper and joined the Apollo's Number One Chorus Line in 1936. Her husband was the legendary tap dancer Charles Coles. She started as a lindy hopper as a teenager at the Savoy and Renaissance Ballrooms in the 1930s. Every Sunday after church, Coles' mother taught her ballroom dancing. Her father was in the navy and died at sea, leaving Marion and her mother behind. Marion Coles (Ma– November 6, 2009) was born in Harlem, New York. They won a pay increase from $22.50 to $25 dollars per week, extra time for rehearsals, and reduced working hours. The strike helped establish the American Guild of Variety Artists. The strike was the first for Black entertainers. Sixteen chorus girls shut down the theater by refusing to go onstage and held a 24-hour picket line. Wood led the Apollo Theater chorus line to strike for higher wages and a week's vacation pay on February 23, 1940. In the 1930s, Wood was the dance captain at the Apollo Theater where the young dancers first met. Bertye Lou Wood and other dancers chipped in and bought Ella Fitzgerald her first evening gown because she did not have one. She is also famous for dancing with Andy Kirk, Harry James, and the Jimmie Lunceford Band. In 1927, she made her debut at age 22, performing for the Lafayette and the Apollo Theater in the chorus line. She danced with Bill Robinson on Broadway in Brown Buddies (1931), where she was among the first women to dance on stairs with him. The dance director Addison Cary gave Wood her first big break. She left her husband to go out on her own. From Newark, New Jersey, Wood started dancing in 1922 at the Lafayette Theater all the while raising her three boys. Cole said, "She taught me how to dance, everything I know I owe to Bertye." Wood filmed the documentary Been Rich All My Life at age 95. Members īertye Lou Wood (Ap– March 7, 2002) was known as one of the great dancers of the Harlem Renaissance and helped other dancers by teaching them new steps, including fellow member of the Silver Belles, Marion Cole. ![]() They are featured in a 2006 documentary directed by Heather Lyn MacDonald, titled Been Rich All My Life. Managed by Geri Kennedy, The Silver Belles marked their return to the stage on Jat the Latin Quarter. Group members included Marion Coles, Elaine Ellis, Cleo Hayes, Fay Ray, and Bertye Lou Wood. ![]()
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