Anyone who stepped foot on a dancefloor between the 1950s and the 1990s activated the legacy of tap dancer Cholly Atkins, who has died aged 89. His stage training and choreography enabled many US recording acts to reach the topwith some of the postwar era's most danceable numbers.
"Vocal choreography", which he devised for Harlem street doo wop groups in the 1950s, was the key. Initially the performers looked, and in some cases acted like delinquents, but Atkins heard possibilities, rooted in the 1930s swing era, in their music.
Early in 1955, dusting off riffdancing routines from the ensemble passages that swing sections played behind soloists in the 1930s, he persuaded the Cadillacs group to stop clutching their hearts to denote true love or pointing yonder when "far away" was the subject and try counterpoint movements. The lead singer, usually the worst dancer, kept it simple by moving to the melody, while backing singers evoked the rhythmic subtleties of jazz hoofers remembered by Atkins.
The Cadillacs became hugely popular, and remain one of the best dancing vocal groups. Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers, the Cleftones, the Harptones and many more followed. Yet Atkins ran into opposition from some managers who didn't want their stars overshadowed by stylishly dancing back line singers. Atkins was no more fazed by this than he was by doo woppers who concluded they didn't need him after chart success. He reminded them that his training had been their key ingredient.
As doo wop faded, he developed his choreography further with Gladys Knight and the Pips which resulted in Harvey Fuqua of the Moonglows introducing Atkins to Motown records. From 1964 he enjoyed outstanding successes with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye and many more. When Motown moved to California in 1972 star grooming was dropped so Atkins switched to the emerging Philadelphia groups such as the O'Jays.
Atkins was born in Pratt City, Alabama, but brought up in the then swinging town of Buffalo, New York state. Coming from a broken family, living in tough times, Atkins caught the 1920s Charleston dance wave and never looked back. Atkins met his future dance partner and colleague Charles "Honi" Coles when Atkins's first act, the Rhythm Pals, arrived in New York in 1935. After Coles pointed out to him that he still had much to learn, the Rhythm Pals moved to California, where they broke up. Atkins met his first wife Catherine there, appeared in clubs and worked as as a Hollywood extra.
Fascinated by the film industry, he spent breaks watching other productions. Employed to dub tap soundtracks for white, ballet-trained chorus dancers who couldn't catch the rhythms, he organised his own ensemble of black dancers. Becoming a personal choreographer for film star Eleanor Powell, he failed to interest her in his own tap speciality, speedily delivered "wings" - hopping on one leg while tapping with the other.
Back in New York, Coles directed him to a vacancy in the Cotton Club Boys, whose venue was on Broadway. Before their club shows the Boys performed in the 1940, World's Fair Hot Mikado production. There, Atkins closely observed dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's legendary rapport with audiences. He also found his next dancing partner and eventual second wife, Dotty Saulters, which led to a collaboration with the producer Leonard Reed, from whom he learned a great deal.
The second world war intervened just as Atkins and Coles started singing together as part of bandleader Cab Calloway's act. Postwar they formed their Coles and Atkins act, which faded out at the end of the 1960s.
Despite the accolades for their dancing and choreography in the 1949 stage version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Carol Channing, Coles and Atkins's majestic signature piece, the slow, soft- shoe tap, danced to Taking A Chance on Love, was a kind of requiem for a rapidly passing jazz-dance tradition. Atkins's work with the new groups was on the increase and Coles became manager of Harlem's Apollo theatre in 1949.
Four decades on, at the end of the 1980s Atkins was asked to recycle the Miracles' routines for New Kids On The Block, who were inaugurating the boy-band era. Yet another dimension was added as old groups kept returning for more routines.
This feedback was even greater on dancefloors. The Temptations and Pips' routines had been an inspiration for the subsequent New York disco scene, and when that faded, its B-boy, hip hop replacement.
Atkins's influence reached beyond the US, helping shape the original reggae/ska styles in the 1960s and 70s, the 1970s and 80s northern soul scene, and current derivatives of the acid house dance upsurge of the 1980s and 90s. Even the many styles of the current scene connect with Atkins's legacy.
For the Supremes' Mary Wilson, he was on a par with Fred Astaire and she felt it was "a shame he didn't receive all the recognition he deserved", a comment that could refer to Motown's deplorable failure to acknowledge Atkins's role in its success.
He received many awards, including an honorary tap doctorate from Oklahoma City University and a 1988 Tony for Black And Blue. There was also the beginnings of a recognition of the continuity he created between what he called authentic jazz dance and the dance generations of the 1950s onwards, as told in his superb autobiography Class Act (2001), co-written with Jacqui Malone.
He died in Las Vegas, surrounded by family and "students" such as Gladys Knight and Mary Wilson. He is survived by his third wife, Maye.
· Cholly Atkins (Charlest Atkinson), tap dancer and choreographer, born September 30 1913; died April 19 2003