Felicity Isabelle "Flick" Colby (March 23, 1946 – May 26, 2011) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

dancer and choreographer best known for being a founding member and the choreographer of the

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dance troupe

Pan's People Pan's People were a British all-female dance troupe most commonly associated with the BBC TV music chart show ''Top of the Pops'', from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. They appeared on many other TV shows in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and al ...

, which appeared on the

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

chart show ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

'' from 1968 to 1976. Colby became the full-time dance choreographer for the ''Top of the Pops'' dance troupes Pan's People, Ruby Flipper, Legs & Co., and

Zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

(credited as "Dance Director"), from 1972 until 1983.

Early life

Colby was born in

Hazleton, Pennsylvania Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,963 at the 2020 census. Hazleton is the second largest city in Luzerne County. It was incorporated as a borough on January 5, 1857, and as a city on Decembe ...

. Her father was Thomas E. Colby, Professor of German at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

in upstate New York. As a child, Colby lived in Clinton and later in

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. Educated at a school in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

and Abbot Academy (

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...

), she began attending

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

and other dance classes in

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and performed in musicals before travelling to London in 1966.

''Top of the Pops'' career

Colby was a founding member in December 1966 of Pan's People. After a few changes of line-up, by December 1967 the troupe comprised additionally Dee Dee Wilde, Babs Lord, Louise Clarke, Andrea Rutherford and Ruth Pearson.PansPeople.co
Flick Colby: Her Story in Words and Pictures
/ref> Their earliest BBC television appearance was in 1968 on ''The

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 with her Sou ...

Show'', broadcast initially on BBC2 and repeated later on BBC1. Other BBC series followed, including '' Happening For Lulu'' in 1969 as well as ''The Price of Fame'' starring

Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the on ...

and Alan Price. They first appeared on ''Top of the Pops'' in April 1968, and became a regular weekly feature in January 1970. They appeared on several other BBC programmes including ''

The Two Ronnies ''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, seria ...

''. After 1971, Colby concentrated on choreography for Pan's People, and then from 1976 with new troupes she put together for ''TOTP'' named " Ruby Flipper", " Legs & Co." (both managed by former Pan's People dancer Ruth Pearson) and "

", for which she was credited by TOTP as "Dance Director". She also choreographed the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

musical '' Catch My Soul'', and co-wrote an instructional book, ''Let's Go Dancing'' (1979).

Personal life

For a few years after Colby's tenure with ''Top of the Pops'', Colby split her time between her family's home town of Clinton, New York and London, but eventually chose to settle down in Clinton, where she lived the remainder of her life. She owned and operated a

gift shop A gift shop or souvenir shop is a store primarily selling souvenirs, memorabilia, and other items relating to a particular topic or theme. The items sold often include coffee mugs, stuffed animals, toys, t-shirts, postcards, handmade collec ...

, Paddywacks. Colby married three times: first to writer Robert Marasco, then to James Ramble in 1967, and finally in 2003 to George Bahlke, a professor of literature at Hamilton College, until his death in February 2011.Spencer Leigh
Obituary: Flick Colby
''The Independent'', May 31, 2011. In the last years of her life, Colby had

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

and died of

bronchopneumonia Bronchopneumonia is a subtype of pneumonia. It is the acute inflammation of the bronchi, accompanied by inflamed patches in the nearby lobules of the lungs. citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2014 It is ofte ...

Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', May 30, 2011, p. 42 at her home in Clinton in May 2011, aged 65, some four months after the death of her husband, George Bahlke."Pan's People co-founder Flick Colby dies aged 65"
''Daily Telegraph'', May 29, 2011. She was survived by a brother, Thomas Colby IV.

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Flick Colby: Her Story in Words and Pictures (PansPeople.com)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colby, Flick 1946 births 2011 deaths American choreographers American female dancers Dancers from New York (state) Dancers from Pennsylvania Deaths from bronchopneumonia Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) People from Clinton, Oneida County, New York People from Hazleton, Pennsylvania 21st-century American women