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Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Dean
Collins |
Soloman
Ruddosky |
Collins was born in Columbus Ohio, then moved
to Newark, New Jersey. Dean started dancing at the Savoy
Ballroom, in Harlem, N.Y. at the age of 14. By the age of
18 he received the dancer of the year award from the New Yorker
Magazine. He left New York for New Orleans and finally arrived
in Los Angeles (Venice, Ca.) in 1936 to get into the movies, the
Savoy
style of swing was virtually unknown to Californians.
It's said he danced in the Harvest
Moon Ball contests in New York in the mid 1930's but I have
found no record of it as yet. He won his first dance contest in
California at the Palomar
Ballroom and started teaching his version of Savoy
Style Lindy which lead the way for what is called West
Coast Swing (today's modern swing.) West Coast later
|
went on to become the
Official
State Dance Of California which Dean is given credit as to inadvertantly
creating. To distinquish the difference between the original style
and modern style of West Coast Swing, the original form is now being
called "Hollywood Style" which is hugely based on the
original 'Movie style' of Dean's and others. However most the movie
billings would call it 'Rock and Roll' in the 1950's. Dean was way
ahead of his time when it came to dance and he could style like
no other when the music got slow and could become a cyclone when
it got fast. Dean and others danced to all styles of music in the
1960's and 1970's as long as it "swung."
Dean went on to dance in or choreograph many Hollywood
movies. His first big break came in 1939 when he was asked to choreograph
'Let's Make Music'. He would go on to either dance and or Choreograph
swing dance in Films such as Junior Prom, Hellzapoppin', Livin'
It Up, Ride 'em Cowboy, Buck Privates etcetera. Dean taught most
of the dancers and teachers how to do swing in the Los Angeles areas
in the 1950s and 60's and many movie personalities as well (Ceaser
Romero, Arthur Murray, Andrews Sisters, Joan Collins, Abbot and
Costello, and many others and many others stayed with a style they
knew best over the years.
His main partner of eleven years was Jewel
McGowen who was termed the "greatest female swing dancer
ever was" and danced with Dean for well over ten years. Dean
sponsored a Dance Championship contest at the Palladium in Hollywood
CA. in 1983 called the "Superbowl of Swing" which included
West Coast Swing, Lindy, East Coast and Hustle dancers (West
Coast prevailed.) Dean married Mary and lived in Glendale, California.
Dean was very active in the swing dance community right up till
he passed away in 1984 at the young age of 67. |
Birth Place |
Birth Date |
Spouse |
Offspring |
| Columbus, OH |
5/29/1917 - 6/1/1984 |
Yes ---> |
One Daughter |
| |
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Mary ??? |
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Night Clubs
|
Theaters |
Stage |
| Casino
Gardens |
n/a |
n/a |
| Friar's
Club |
|
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| Diana
Ballroom |
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| Golden
West Ballroom |
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| Happy
Days (Jack Wade's - Glendale 1982) |
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| Palomar
Ballroom |
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| Pips
(Beverly Hills) |
Awards |
|
|
|
| Prelude,
the |
California
Swing Dance Hall Of Fame |
|
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| Rag
Doll (Lankershim in No. Hlywd) |
New Yorker Mag's - Dancer of the year 1935 |
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| Rendezvous
Ballroom |
??Harvest
Moon Ball?? |
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| Savoy
Ballroom (N.Y.) |
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| Staircase
(Downey) |
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| The
Tail Spin |
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| Water
Wheel |
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