Later, he was introduced to dance teacher Lester Horton. Horton had a dance school in Hollywood and his style was more straightforward and what Ailey was looking for. When Ailey saw a school performance of fellow Jefferson High School student and Horton protégé, Carmen de Lavallade, he signed on with Horton. Lester Horton welcomed him to his company as part of the chorus. Soon after, Alvin had choreographed his first formal concert dance, Afternoon Blues, set to music from the Broadway show, On The Town.
A Man of Mixture Lester Horton, American dancer, choreographer, and teacher was born on January 23 1906, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Horton’s fascination with the arts, ballet, and Native American dance led him to participate in local theatre productions. In 1928 Mr. Horton made a shocking decision to move to Los Angeles, California and began dancing in Michio Ito’s company and eventually ended up founding his own company. Moving to Los Angeles was a big step for Horton, since at that time New York was the main headquarters for American dance. Mr. Horton’s ability to translate ethnic dances into commercially acceptable formats led him to choreographing musical numbers for films from the 1940s through the early 1950s.
She was very much a tomboy in her younger years. To tone down her liveliness, when she was 11, her mother enrolled her in the Jones-Hayward School of Ballet. When Conchita was 15, a teacher from George Balanchine's School of American Ballet visited their studio and she was picked along with two other students to audition in New York. Education Chita got into the school, but shortly after began her career in Broadway for the audition for the national tour of Call Me Madam. She was only supposed to be supporting her friend but gained the role instead.
At about 24 years of age, Hanya Holm saw a recital of Mary Wigman. After training in Germany, she worked at Mary Wigman’s Central Institute in Dresden as a dancer and teacher and later co director. In 1929 she danced the princess in one of the early productions of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Taleher first major solo part for which she did her own choreography. At that time she was not yet quite sure whether to become a dancer, choreographer, or teacher. In 1931 she opened a Wigman school in New York City, which became the Hanya Holm Studio in 1936.
He performed with the company in vaudeville throughout the United States and in concerts in England and the Orient. During an extended tour of the Far East, his interest in oriental dance was aroused, and he began studies with a Japanese teacher. In 1927, he and Doris Humphrey left Denishawn in protest against the romanticism of the repertory, and together they established a company and a school devoted to exploring a new aesthetic. It is the work of the company they founded and that of their contemporaries, Martha Graham and Hanya Holm that has come to be known as modern dance. Miss Humphrey and Mr. Weidman established new principles of technique, and choreographed many works together.
He had a screen test by M-G-M, he appeared in the film Kiss Me Kate (1953). Since Kiss Me Kate was a highly original dance number, this led him to his first job as a choreographer. It was the Broadway hit directed by Jerome Robbins, The Pajama Game (1954). A little while later he met Gwen Verdon, who was a talented dancer. The two collaborated on several hit shows such as, Damn Yankee (1955, film 1958), New Girl in Town (1957), and Redhead (1959).
In 1922 she landed a small part as a comedy chorus girl in the touring company of Sissle and Blake's musical revue "Shuffle Along". Josephine went over well in her small role in the revue and came to the attention of Sissle and Blake. They wrote a special part for her in their 1924 production of "Chocolate Dandies". During this time period Josephine became the steady girl friend of Eubie Blake. French producers came to New York looking to cast an all-black musical revue in Paris.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 18401. His family consisted of his parents and six other siblings. He was very close to his mother, who died of cholera when he was only 14. His father worked as a mine inspector, and also wanted Tchaikovsky to work in the civil service2. Tchaikovsky did choose to do so, working as a bureau clerk, before his passion for music dictated the rest of his life.
Gene Kelly choreographed several dance and drama films, one called “An American in Paris” (1951). Michael Kidd is also an outstanding choreographer, who produced motion picture choreographer, in which dance further is the story line. Debbie Reynolds was another familiar name in movie musicals of the 1950’s. She was not a trained dancer but had great stage charisma. Her breakthrough in 1950 was in “Two Weeks with Love”, starring
It was introduced to the theater going public at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York when the "Ziegfeld Follies," staged a dance act that featured the Charleston. Ned Wayburn was the choreographer, and Sizzle and Blake introduced a young African-American boy to Wayburn. The boy demonstrated what was to be the signature step of the Charleston. Wayburn supposedly choreographed a few more steps and Sissle and Blake wrote the songs ... it was an immediate hit. In that same year a stage play by the name of "Liza" had introduced the dance done by Rufus Greenlee and Maude Russell but went un-noticed.