Information You Didn’t Need to Know About The Solid Gold Dancers

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

The Eighties were an interesting time. The clothes alone were unexplainable. Music and the movies were changing. As with any trend of an era, things tend to make comebacks. Those of us who grew up in the Eighties were almost certain that certain things from our time period would be spared a revival.

We were mistaken. Leggings have made their way back into popular fashion. Unbelievably, the Fashion Powers That Be saw it fit to bring back a fashion style that looks good on nobody, and that only 5% of the population can wear without looking like some sort of odd-colored sausage. Shoulder pads, bangly jewelry, rubber jewelry, obnoxiously bright colors – they’ve all made it to the shelves and kids are buying it up like crazy. What’s next? Sky high bangs?

With all the Eighties madness, one thing has returned to The World of Cool that makes a little bit more sense. Dancing. We’re not talking about ballroom dancing, ballet dancing or booty dancing. We’re talking about jazz-hands, fossie-fossie, break-dancing, shake-what-your-momma-gave-you dancing. The kind of dancing you see on So You Think You Can Dance and the dance people on America’s Got Talent. It is highly reminiscent of the dancing craze of the Eighties – with Fame, Flashdance, Footloose, and other influential movies. TV shows too! One of the most popular and influential dancing shows was Solid Gold.

The Solid Gold Dancers were the pinnacle of freestyle interpretive dance in the dance-crazed Eighties. They were flashy. They were sexy. They had amazingly big hair. Boys fantasized about them. Girls wanted to be them. Vice versa, as well. From 1980 to 1988 we learned what songs were at the top of the charts while we watched the Solid Gold Dancers, bejeweled and bespangled, dance to those hits. Whether they were easy to dance to or not. Ever tried to dance to the theme song of Miami Vice? It is difficult. Regardless, these dancers were selling gold hand over fist – merchandising gold and a fortune in dancing lessons.

Who were these talented and influential (though heinously dressed) dancers? Where did these treasures end up? Was there life after Solid Gold Saturday Night?

Yes, to a point, for Tony, one of the original two males in the dance troupe. He appeared on Solid Gold until 1984, and enjoyed a successful career after that. He appeared in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and “Thriller” videos, as well as Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” video, to name a few. He played the character of Al in the film adaptation of A Chorus Line. Unfortunately, he died in 1995. As a side note, Michael Jackson ended up employing a lot of Solid Gold Dancers in various projects. Captian EO employed a great amount of Solid Gold Dancers.

Alex and Helene were also in A Chorus Line, and Helene choreographed the video for “Walk the Dinosaur” by Was (Not Was), wherein Deborah was a dancer. Another venue for the later Solid Gol Dancers was the movie Breakin’. Cooley appeared in the first one, and Lucinda played the role of “Special K” in both Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Also, there are other notable dancers.

Other great film roles include Paul's portryal of "Waponi God Woo" in Joe Versus the Volcano. Mark, who was also in the “Thriller” video is an amateur country music singer. Gigi (who was on the show in later years) is Gigi Hunter – knitwear designer to the stars. Eileen was a successful Madonna impersonator in the “Legends In Concert” series.

Some Solid Gold Dancers became famous by association. Chelsea, in addition to having a very busy TV and movie career, also had a son with Scott Bakula of Quantam Leap fame. Janeen married Michael Damain of The Young and the Restless and “Rock On” fame and became a movie producer.

Perhaps the most famous of the Solid Gold Dancers, Darcel Wynne retired to raise her family, but has recently written a book called Darcel Sexy’s Back and She’s Still…Solid Gold that came out in 2008. She was the top dog on Solid Gold and actually acted as MC for a time.

So there you go – all the things you didn’t know you wanted to know about the Solid Gold Dancers. There are clips available on You Tube, and there are plenty of fan sites dedicated to them. And you should – it’s a fascinating piece of Eighties history.

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