Editing Leon Collins

{{short description|American actor}}
{{for|the American media executive|Leon C. Collins}}

[[File:Leon Collins.jpg|thumb|upright|Leon Collins]]
'''Leon Collins''' (February 7, 1922 - April 16, 1985) was an American [[tap dance]]r.

Collins was born Leandre Kollins in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]] to a father of West Indian descent.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Hill|first=Constance Valis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_HERDAAAQBAJ&q=tina+dixon+blues+singer&pg=PA176|title=Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0-19-022538-4|pages=176|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> He began tap dancing at an early age, but he wanted to be a [[Professional boxing|prizefighter]]. As a teenager, Collins performed with worked with [[Count Basie]]'s orchestra, the bands of [[Erskine Hawkins|Erksine Hawkins]], [[Earl Hines]], and [[Tito Puente]].<ref name=":0" /> By the age of seventeen, he relocated to [[Detroit]], where he married blues singer [[Tina Dixon]]. The couple moved to New York City where Dixon, who was signed to perform with the [[Jimmie Lunceford]] Orchestra, recommended that Collins perform with the orchestra when the opening act called out sick. Impressed by his performance, Lunceford signed Collins to a five-year contract.<ref name=":0" />

As work opportunities dried out when rock and roll became popular and big bands became less in demand, he learned to play the guitar, and attended the [[Berklee College of Music|Berklee School of Music]] in Boston.<ref name=":1" /> By the early 1960s, he was forced to give up dance entirely and during this interim, restored cars for fourteen years until tap dance began to experience a revival. At the urging of people like Tina Pratt and Stanley Brown, he came out of retirement and began to teach. In 1976, he performed with other retired dancers in a tap revival show at Boston's New England Life Hall, which led to new opportunities. He opened a studio with Boston's First Lady of Jazz, Mae Arnette. The studio, Star Steps Studio, was located in the [[Roxbury, Boston|Roxbury]] neighborhood of [[Boston]].

In 1982, the studio moved to [[Brookline, Massachusetts|Brookline]] and a new partnership was formed. Leon and three of his students, Clara Brosnaham "CB" Hetherington, [[Dianne Walker]] and Pamela Raff opened the Leon Collins Dance Studio Inc. During this time, Leon formed a company with his students and Joan Hill (pianist). Leon Collins & Co. performed mainly in the New England area from 1982 until his untimely death in 1985. He had a few bit parts in the movies and is known for his exceptional tap dancing and teaching. He was best known for his work with jazz and bebop and in his latter years his work with classical music, in particular, his rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee".

A documentary produced by David Wadsworth, ''Songs Unwritten'', was filmed about Collins and released shortly after his death. He died of [[lung cancer]] in Boston in 1985.

Collins was inducted into the Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2007.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://atdf.org/awards/awardscollins.html|title=Leon Collins|website=American Tap Dance Foundation|access-date=2020-02-24}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />

==External links==
{{Archival records|title=Joan Hill tap notation collection, 1983-1989|location= [[Music Division, Library of Congress]]|description_URL=https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu016012}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120324054915/http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/leon-collins?ref=artist&refcar=%2Fartist%2Fc-d Archival footage of Leon Collins performing Flight of the Bumblebee in 1983 at Jacob's Pillow]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Leon}}
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century American male actors]]
[[Category:African-American male dancers]]
[[Category:American male dancers]]
[[Category:American male film actors]]
[[Category:American male musical theatre actors]]
[[Category:American male stage actors]]
[[Category:American tap dancers]]
[[Category:Berklee College of Music alumni]]
[[Category:American dance teachers]]
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Male actors from Boston]]
[[Category:Male actors from Chicago]]
[[Category:Male actors from Detroit]]
[[Category:Musicians from Boston]]
[[Category:Musicians from Chicago]]
[[Category:Musicians from Detroit]]