Pan's People

Pan's People was a British TV dance troupe most commonly associated with the BBC TV music chart show Top of the Pops from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, however they also appeared on numerous other TV shows in the UK and Europe. They were the second dance troupe to appear regularly on Top of the Pops, succeeding the Go-Jos in May/June 1968. Starting with monthly appearances, they became a weekly feature of the programme following its revamp and time extension in January 1970, continuing in the show until April 1976. As a result of line-up changes just one dancer, Ruth Pearson, appeared on the whole run.

Due to their weekly exposure on British television the group acquired a high profile, and in addition as a result of the increasing number of preserved recordings from 1973 onwards, the 'classic' line-up which existed from 1972 to 1974 is still widely recognised today. The dancers in this line-up were:

Babs Lord (born 1945) - member 1966-1975
Dee Dee Wilde (born 1946) - member 1966-1975
Ruth Pearson (13 July 1946 - 27 June, 2017) - member 1967-1976 and choreographer on some shows 1967-1970.
Louise Clarke (3 September 1949 - 25 August 2012) - member 1967-1974
Cherry Gillespie (born 1955) - member 1972-1976

Principal choreographer for Pan's People's entire existence was Flick Colby (23 March 1946 - 26 May, 2011), who was also a dancer from 1966-1972.

The origins of Pan's People lie in the Dance Centre-based Beat Girls, a six-girl dance group that had appeared on many music and light entertainment TV programmes in the U.K. and Netherlands since its formation in July 1964 for the Beat Room. By December 1966 only two members were left who had appeared in the Beat Room series, which ended in January 1965:

The other members at this time were:

Following an Equity-backed dispute with their management over pay rates for Dutch shows, three members, Colby, Lord and Wilde walked out and formed a new group on 8 December 1966 in London. After considering other names, including Dionysus's Darlings they agreed on the name Pan's People, named after the Greek God, Pan as the "god of dance, music and debauchery". By 18 December, they were joined by two of the remaining three Beat Girls, Harris and Fergusson. This marked the end of the Beat Girls as a regular act on British television, however with new recruits joining Diane South, it continued its Dutch engagements from January 1967, finally ceasing to perform in May 1968.

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