He was the second of three sons of Henry George Kay (1852–1922) and his wife, Helen Maude Chippendall Healey (1869–1960), from Dublin.

[6] Dolin wrote several books, including: Divertissement (1931), the autobiography Ballet Go Round (1938) and Alicia Markova: Her Life and Art (1953).

[citation needed] He was the subject of This Is Your Life in April 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Royal Academy of Dance.

[citation needed] Upon Dolin's death, dancers Jelko Yuresha and Belinda Wright inherited the rights to his choreography of Giselle, Pas de Quatre, and his acclaimed original ballet, Variations for Four.

Yuresha and Wright danced—and later staged—productions of these ballets with dance companies around the world, designing original costumes and sets for those performances.