I wouldn’t do justice to the person that Roy is, but here is a short introduction, He met Walt Disney and was an animation model for the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland and Prince Charming in Cinderella. He studied with Jose Cansino. He was good friends with Fred Astair and keeps in touch to this day with Debbie Reynolds. We had a private and rigorous audition with Gene Kelly and then gave up the part to go on his [LDS] mission – which he served in Uruguay.  He said that Rita Hayworth was perhaps the most beautiful woman he ever saw. [Following up with him, he mentioned after he met his wife, Rita was the second most beautiful.]

Did you feel like it was a job or did you feel like it was just bliss?
I was in the movies which I always had a dream to be in, you know, more than even stage, but I did several movies, so yeah, it was just bliss.  It was work, and I worked for it, I worked hard for the technique and all of that, growing up and all of that. Even though dancing with Debbie (Reynolds), and working in movies and television in Europe, it’s just taken me every place, but honestly speaking I would’ve rather been a singer!

Do you look at movies nowadays and kind of feel like it’s just nothing like it used to be? 
Absolutely, I just channel hop all the time, because I worked on Fred Astaire’s shows with him and we were friends and we could talk, and it was just like that. It’s not like that any more.

How did you explain the importance of a mission to Gene Kelley, when you turned down the part to be a dance in for Frank Sinatra in the musical On The Town?
I don’t remember, I must’ve said or convinced him that it was very important to me. I was studying at the time with one of my best ballet teachers, when I told him, he said “Roy you cannot go, you are my jewel.” and I said “well I’ve been planning on it my whole life since I was a child.” and then I became the dancing missionary.

Tell us about that.
I was planning to hang up my dancing shoes, but for my first week in the mission field, after packing up my costumes and a suit, they were planning skits in all of the branches all around, it so evolved I was part of a story, and did my solo dance that was the Prelude of Carmen, in the opera Carmen. I did that dance, and BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE. 

Anyway, I was kept in the capital district, in Uruguay. I traveled with a quartet and shared the gospel through dance. We opened doors. We performed and people would come to see us. We felt good about what we were doing.

So what is your favorite dance to dance? 
A soft shoe tap dance and a swing dance that were both taught to me by Johnny Boyle, I wouldn’t say that they were my favorite, but the fact that they are in this old brain, I still remember them, I could probably teach them. My forte was Spanish dance, but classic dance was something I was trained in, too. I wasn’t trained in Modern Dance but I did fine with it.

I’ve always told my class this “if you can become proficient and really technically good in classic ballet, you’ll be better in any type of dance.”

Do you feel like anyone has the ability to dance? 
Yes, I really do, Eugene Loring, (the famous choreographer) he said  “Roy, anyone can learn to dance, anyone.” I think there are certain gifts that are given, but I learned how to do some steps before I was even taught them. They were just a part of me.

What do you believe has been your greatest contribution in life?
My greatest, with all of the celebrity and all of that, it was the gospel.  All that I was able to do for the gospel, and having shared the gospel through my dancing feet. People asked me to do things, and I said Yes, I didn’t think of it any other way. We raised money once to help build the first chapel in Uruguay.

Roy taught dance at Southern Utah University full time and Dixie State College as an adjunct professor and still teaches once a week at Westside Studios. He’s in his mid 80’s.