I am a retired entertainer, enjoying the fruits of my hard work. My career started as a street dancer in 1970. Born and raised in Central Los Angeles, my mother a New York Puerto Rican, my father Cuban. In 1974, while stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, I first met the Lockers. They were performing with Dean Martin at the MGM, that night we all went out dancing and I have to say only this, they were simply incredible. My partner and Air Force roommate was Tony "Crackerjack" Pierce that night we sat and talked to the Lockers for hours. A few months later we discharged and went home to L.A.At that time if you wanted to see the Lockers you had to go to South Central Los Angeles to any one of three dance clubs; Maverick Flats, the Summit, or the Citadel. You just had to have enough guts to walk in. With me being Latin, no one noticed, Crackerjack on the other hand, is Irish with bright red hair and freckles. It was lucky for us that Greg "Campbellock Jr." Pope remembered us from Las Vegas and started introducing us to the people we would need to know at each club. Back in this time the racial tension in Los Angeles was intense. Campbellock Jr. started to teach us to Lock, and would continue anytime he was not on tour. James "Skeeter Rabbit" Higgins also a member of the lockers took us under his wing teaching to lock and watching out for us at the clubs. In early 1975 we formed the first all white locking group called the "Funky Bunch".At this time in L.A. the Lockers owned the television scene. There were at least six other dance groups slugging it out for any work the Lockers didn’t take. Jeff Kutash a producer approached us to join his group Dancin Machine, which at the time had Deney Terrio the future star of “Dance Fever†as a member. More importantly Kutash had contracts with hotel casinos in Las Vegas. The Funky Bunch made a business decision and joined the Dancin Machine and the rest would be history. The new re-cast Dancin Machine went to work in the main show rooms and show lounge’s of Las Vegas for the next thirty years. Winning Best Las Vegas Show of the Year for 1976, 1977, and 1978. By 1976 Toni Basil and Fred Berry had left the Lockers, the group disbanded soon after, Dancin Machine took over most of the television work.Kutash, set up multiple companies to tour, leaving the first company to do Las Vegas and television. Every dancer in the Dancin Machine was cast from the Southern California Singles Dance Contest Circuit. A professional dance contest circuit where five nights per week you could compete in a different contest. Each dancer was given two and half minutes to perform facing the audience. It is the same dance circuit that produced every great dancer and group on the west coast, including the Dancin Machine, the Lockers, the Soul Train Gang, the Funky Bunch, the Ghetto Dancers, Something Special, L.A. Knockers and Lady Dynamite. By March of 1978 Dancin Machine had its own weekly TV show as stars of the Hanna Barbera Happy Hour. The group became the dancers on the Mid-Night Special, Hot City, and Kicks.I left Dancin Machine in late 1979, to pursue my dancing further, within weeks of leaving I became the lead dancer for the International Tour of the Folies Bergere, I then went on to Broadway performing in "West Side Story". In 1981 I started working on Footlockers, in 1983 the act was invited to perform on Star Search, where we became the Semi Finalist National Dance Champions. Within weeks of Star Search, we signed with representation and shortly thereafter became the co-stars in the movie "Breakin 2 Electric Boogaloo" and "Cry of the City". At this point the act added the singing element and signed a recording contract with an independent label. The Footlockers toured from 1983 to 1989 working as the opening act for Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Chita Rivera, Frank Sinatra, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Gallagher and many others. We worked the theaters of the world, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Palais Des Congress in Paris. In London we had the great honor to perform a Royal Command Performance for the Queen of England at the London Palladium. In 1986 I produced my first show titled "Star Shop" for the Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas the show won Best New Show of the Year Honors. A small irony of this my first production was that Jeff Kutash so happen to be the producer they were already negotiating with, I was a cold call walk-in with no track record as a producer. In 1987, I produced "Dansin Dirdy" for the Marina Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas the show had the good fortune to receive eight awards in two years including Best Dance Show of the Year. My producing career took off, I left the Footlockers in 1989 to write, produce, direct and choreograph full time. I was an associate producer on half a dozen shows with Dick Francisco in Atlantic City and the Bahamas. Footlockers did continue touring Europe with a new name of the Untouchables working under the direction of Steve “SugarBop†Bernier. You can see the Footlockers on the HBO Liza in London special a two hour special shot live from the London Palladium.It took me a little over two years to write the “Footlockers†act. I want to acknowledge the following dancers that were part of the building process to create Footlockers. Frank "Sundance" Sams, Mike "Crackerjack" Sierra, Robert "Shoebox" Huffman, Dino “Caneman†Henderson, Martin "Ric-A-Shay Rabbit" Mancusso. To the members that I toured with Steve "Trickman" Kane, Robbie,"Smokey Jr." LaBlanc, and Steve "SugarBop" Bernier, thank you my brothers in locking. It was the best of times! It was the best of life! It was the ultimate dream career come true!
