Darcel Leonard Wynne sometimes credited as simply Darcel, is an African-American dancer, choreographer, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and producer, best known for heading the "Solid Gold Dancers" on the syndicated 1980s music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 series Solid Gold

Solid Gold (TV series)

Solid Gold is an American syndicated music television series that debuted on September 13, 1980. Like many other shows of its genre, such as American Bandstand, Solid Gold featured musical performances and various other elements such as music videos...

.

Darcel started dancing professionally at the age of 13. She danced in films, on television, performed on Broadway, and choreographed and performed for shows in Las Vegas. Darcel also staged and toured the United States with her own one-woman production. Darcel danced and toured with the legendary Temptations.

As her popularity grew, so did her exposure in the entertainment world and she soon appeared in the films Xanadu

Xanadu (film)

Xanadu is a 1980 romantic musical fantasy film written by Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province...

, Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...

, Night Shift

Night Shift

A night shift is either a group of workers who work during the night, or the period in which they work. See shift work.Night Shift may also refer to:* Night Shift , a fictional team of supervillains in the Marvel Universe...

, The Girl, Gold Watch & Dynamite, The Last Married Couple in America, Mame, Scrooged

Scrooged

Scrooged is a 1988 American comedy film, a modernization of Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol. The film was produced and directed by Richard Donner, and the cinematography was by Michael Chapman. The screenplay was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue...

, Funny Girl

Funny Girl

Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein...

 and Funny Lady. Darcel was also featured in the Kool & the Gang

Kool & the Gang

Kool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...

 video for their single "Fresh". Some of Darcel’s television credits include The Sammy Davis Jr. Show, NBC Follies, Red Foxx Show, Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her work in Hallelujah, Baby! She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.-Singing:...

 Show, Pearl Bailey

Pearl Bailey

Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...

 Show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is an American variety show based on the married couple of American pop-singer Cher and her husband, Sonny Bono. The show ran on CBS in the United States, when it premiered in August 1971...

 and the Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...

.

Solid Gold

Darcel made her first national appearance on the hit television series Solid Gold

Solid Gold (TV series)

Solid Gold is an American syndicated music television series that debuted on September 13, 1980. Like many other shows of its genre, such as American Bandstand, Solid Gold featured musical performances and various other elements such as music videos...

. Darcel's first appearance on Solid Gold was during the two-hour Solid Gold '79. Darcel was one of eight dancers who appeared on the special. Due to the high ratings of Solid Gold '79, the show became a weekly series in late summer 1980. Darcel along with three other dancers (Alexander Cole, Deborah Jenssen, and Paula Beyers) who were on Solid Gold '79 joined Solid Gold once the weekly series started. Another dancer, Gayle Crofoot who was also in Solid Gold '79, appeared on Solid Gold in late 1982.

Darcel appeared on the series first four seasons from 1980 to 1984, after which she left the show for a traveling Christian ministry with her husband, Glenn Leonard

Glenn Leonard

Glenn Carl Leonard is an American R&B and soul singer best remembered for serving as the first tenor/secondary lead singer of the Motown quintet The Temptations from 1975 to 1983.-Biography:...

 of the R&B soul group The Temptations

The Temptations

The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...

. During the second season of Solid Gold Darcel received more exposure than the other seven dancers as she was featured dancing solo once or twice during the Top 10 countdown. She returned to Solid Gold during the later part of Season 5 in the summer of 1985. In Season 6 her role on the series enlarged from principal dancer to part-time master of ceremonies

Master of Ceremonies

A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....

, in which she had many speaking parts including regularly announcing the Top 10 countdown. (Darcel was the first celebrity to do David Letterman

David Letterman

David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...

’s now very popular Top 10 countdown on The David Letterman Show

The David Letterman Show

The David Letterman Show was a live morning NBC talk show hosted by David Letterman from June 23 to October 24, 1980. The show originally ran for 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward.-Background:...

.)

Personal life

After leaving Solid Gold in 1986, she retired to raise a family with her husband, Glenn Leonard. She has three grown children.

Darcel lives in Los Angeles where she teaches dance and choreography to mature women she's coined as her "Seasoned Beauties."

Darcel has written an autobiography: Darcel: Solid Gold. The book reveals a gamut of topics in the dancers life: her rise to fame, trials and tribulations of fame, marriage and abuse, behind the scenes of Solid Gold, her struggle to establish dance as a ministry in the black church and her return to Hollywood.

External links

• http://www.darcelsolidgold.com