Here is the story of the jazz dance and tap master who taught Motown how to move. Cholly Akins' career has spanned an extraordinary era of American dance. With his partner, Honi Coles, Cholly toured the country, performing with such jazz masters as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Count Basie. In the 1950s, Cholly created the new specialization of "vocal choreography," teaching artists such as the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight and the Pips how to perform their music by adding rhythmical dance steps drawn from twentieth-century American dance, from the Charleston to rhythm tap. Chronicling the rise, near demise, and rediscovery of tap dancing, the book is both an engaging biography and a rich cultural history.

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