Woman who co-founded Pan’s People dies aged 65

Flick Colby was the dancer and choreographer credited with co-founding the group that went on to become an iconic part of British pop culture.

Before the age of the music video, which dawned with the arrival of MTV, the dance troupe provided the visual entertainment when an artist could not appear on the BBC show.

They were not the first such group to appear on the pop programme – they were preceded by the Go-Jos – but they were its first exclusive set of dancers.

And they came to be as synonymous with the much-loved chart show as cigar-chomping Jimmy Savile and the pounding Led Zeppelin theme tune.

Although Colby was an American who grew up in Clinton, New York, it was on British television that she found fame.

She joined dancers Babs Lord, Ruth Pearson and Dee Dee Wilde and recruited Louise Clarke and Andi Rutherford to form Pan’s People in 1966.

At the time, their outfits were seen as somewhat skimpy and their dance routines considered daring.

As well as being a staple of 1960s and 1970s Top of the Pops, Pan’s People featured on a number of other TV shows, including The Two Ronnies.

Although at first Colby was both choreographing the routines and dancing with the group, she later retreated to a behind-the-scenes role only.

They last appeared on the show in April 1976, dancing to Silver Star by The Four Seasons.

When the group split after this final performance, the women were said to have remained close friends.

But Colby eventually moved back to the US, where she married and settled down in Clinton with her husband George and opened a gift shop.

When her husband died earlier this year, Colby was already seriously ill with cancer herself and she never fully recovered from her bereavement, her publicist said.

Her condition deteriorated before finally leading to the bronchial pneumonia she died of at her home in Clinton on Thursday.