Career
He worked often with tap dancer Donald O"Connor. Both parents were professional dancers, and at some point in the ‘30s they settled in Hollywood to open a dance school. He seems not to have been under contract, but to have worked for various studios for the next few years.
By 1941 he was the primary choreographer for Ruby Keeler in Columbia Pictures’ ‘Sweetheart of the Campus’, her last musical film’.
In 1941, Studios was assembling a group of the best teenage dancers in the country for a dance group to be marketed as the “Jivin’ Jacks and Jills” in musical comedy films, and DaPron was put under contract by to be the choreographer for this group. The Jivin’ Jacks and Jills were popular with teen audiences, primarily for the dancing and comedy efforts of Donald O"Connor and Peggy Ryan, who were frequently teamed together.
As O’Connor became increasingly popular, focused on him, and the Jivin’ Jacks and Jills were disbanded after 10 films. DaPron stayed on, as O’Connor’s choreographer and as head choreographer at, a role he retained well into the "50s.
He can be seen in small dancing parts in two films from 1948: Are You With lieutenant and Feudin", Fussin" and a-Fightin" (as ‘the shadow’ in a dance routine to First Rate (at Lloyd's) Jolson’s Maine And My Shadow), illustrating his unique style of movement.