Taking The Show On The Road

By Rhee Gold

A pictorial retrospective on Danny Hoctor, and how he helped launch the modern dance competition.

Flashback: 1959. Picture dance conventions at a time when instead of flying coast to coast the teachers drove to each city, did their thing, and jumped back in the car to head for yet another city. That’s the way it was for dance convention pioneer Danny Hoctor in the infancy of what is now a huge industry for dance teachers and a treasured educational experience for young dancers.

Hoctor started dancing at age 17, studying tap dance at the Reed McLane School in his hometown of San Francisco, where he learned the basic technique and steps performed by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. A year later, in 1936, realizing that he wanted to expand his horizons, he pursued ballet training and was awarded a scholarship to San Francisco Ballet School. He joined the company in 1938.

Despite the ballet scholarship, Hoctor was a showbiz kind of guy and landed at an audition for Billy Rose’s Aquacade, an extravaganza starring Esther Williams and Johnny Weismuller (of Tarzan fame) produced for the 1939 New York world’s fair. Danny was cast in the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition production of the show, caught the showbiz bug, and never looked back.

One day, during a rehearsal, in walked Robinson, who knew Hoctor had experience with “Bojangle steps,” so he asked him to join him in an impromptu performance of the famous stair dance for the cast. It was a moment that Hoctor often mentioned throughout his lifetime. He and Robinson would cross paths many times.

While on the road in Chicago, Hoctor learned about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and, like millions of other Americans, he enlisted. When his U.S. Navy commanders learned that he could sing and dance, he sailed through with no boot training, became a yeoman third class, and was assigned to active duty under Commander Eddie Peabody and the Great Lakes Band.

The young dancer’s military stint lasted three years, during which his evenings were filled with up to three shows with other enlisted performers and musicians. After his tour of duty he taught tap at the Perry Dance Studios in Hollywood, but before long the stage lured him back. He returned to performing life with the touring company of Call Me Mister, in which he understudied the legendary Bob Fosse.

It was during the run of Call Me Mister that Hoctor fell in love with his future wife, Betty Byrd, a featured dancer in the show. Together they formed an act that was successful not only on U.S. and European stages but on this innovative new entertainment form called television. They appeared on The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Kate Smith Hour, The Colgate Comedy Hour, and The Perry Como Show, among others.

While teaching for various dance organizations the Hoctors discovered a need for classroom music and began to record the first of what would become hundreds of albums for the dance classroom. Fifty years later their music label is still a staple in American dance schools, with new music being developed annually by their son, David. That first step into filling a void for dance teachers led to the idea of traveling the country to offer hands-on instruction in the form of conventions.

In 1959 the Hoctors, along with Bob Kimble, founder of Kimbo Records (now Kimbo Educational), and the late Jules Stone, who launched Dance Olympus, established their own traveling convention, Dance Caravan. Previously the only conventions available were those offered by organizations that required membership to attend. Dance Caravan nixed that rule, opening the convention world to all teachers, from big cities to small towns across the United States.

Eight teachers drove coast to coast, offering classes— thus the name “Dance Caravan.” Today what Hoctor created has turned into a huge conglomerate. Betty, David, and David’s wife, Jamie Salmon, are at the helm of Hoctor Dance Enterprises, which encompasses not only Dance Caravan but also the Professional Dance Teachers Association, Stars of Tomorrow, and Caravan Kids.

Although Hoctor passed away on July 14, 2003, his vision of offering dance education to dance teachers across the country is very much alive within the company he founded and the hundreds of dance conventions and workshops that have sprung up in North America. The convention (and competition) world is booming, and we just may owe it all to the vision of

Danny Hoctor.   

Photo captions (top to bottom):

Danny Hoctor and his wife, Betty Byrd, had their names in lights on the New York City Strand Theater’s marquee in the late 1940s.

During his three years in the Navy, Danny Hoctor performed up to three times a night with other enlisted performers.  

Touring company of the ex-G.I. revue, Call Me Mister?  

Betty (Byrd) Hoctor and Danny Hoctor in the early 60s.

Caravan faculty picture from the mid 60s – Front row: L. to R. Rhett Dennis, Luigi. Middle row: L. to R. Tania Karina, Unknown, Betty Hoctor, Blasia. Back row: L. to R. Joe Cornell, Jim Smith, Jules Stone, Melvin Kaiser, Art Stone, Danny Hoctor.