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.
Suzanne Farrell is a legendary ballerina figure, and is considered one of the most influential ballet dancers of the 20th century. She was born with the name Roberta Sue Ficker in 1945 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she started dancing at the age of eight, and spent her childhood studying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Her parents divorced when she was 10, and she lived with her mother, grandmother, and two older sisters. In 1959, Farrell won a scholarship and was chosen to study at the School of American Ballet in New York, founded by the world famous choreographer named George Balanchine, and it is the official academy of the New York City Ballet. Suzanne Farrell attended the school in 1960, and by 1961 she was performing with the New York City Ballet, by which time she had adopted her professional name, Suzanne Farrell.
Marshall was born in Pittsburgh and sang and danced as a child. In an interview from June 2004 on the American Theatre Wing website, Marshall explains how she had no formal training but was cast as a Von Trapp with her brother and sister in The Sound of Music at a summer theatre company. What really inspired her to the world of dance was sneaking to watch the dance ensemble rehearse. After this experience, she began to take a ton of dance classes and began working as a dancer and a dance captain in Pittsburgh and in tours. Marshall got her start on Broadway being her brother Rob Marshall’s assistant on Kiss of the Spider Woman and then assisted on the revivals of She Loves Me and Damn Yankees.
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.
Hurston had a happy childhood in Eatonville, Florida, yet Hurston’s life was anything but picture perfect. Hurston's mother died when Zora was thirteen. Her father quickly remarried, and Zora was sent to boarding school. After a time he stopped paying her tuition and she was expelled. She worked as a maid in a traveling theatrical company, and then, in 1917, the twenty-six-year-old lied about her age to gain admission to the Morgan Academy, graduating from the high school the following year.
Her signing talent was first displayed at the age of 3 when she performed on the show Estudiantinas Estudian . Recognizing the talent of her youngest daughter , her mother Dona Yolanda enrolled the then 6 year old Thalia in ballet lessons at Academia Nellie Happee Topping her musical lessons off at the age of 8 with Piano lessons at Instituto
Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Johnson in New York City. Her mother, a nurse and teacher, raised her daughter and a son on her own after Whoopi's preacher father left the family. The future star spent the first years of her life in a public housing project in Manhattan. Drawn to the theater from earliest childhood, she made her performing debut at age eight with the Helena Rubinstein Children's Theatre at the Hudson Guild. After dropping out of high school at 14, she lied about her age to find work as a summer camp counselor, and singing in the choruses of the Broadway shows Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Pippin.
The Charleston was performed as early as 1903 in the Southern States. As time went on it was being used as a regular cotillion step and finally made its way, as we know it today, into Harlem stage productions by 1913 says James P. Johnson. Henry “Rubber legs" Williams says it was the first dance he won a contest in the mid-teens. The show called “Shuffle Along” also had some Charleston dancing, but not yet recognized as such, they were just referred as the fastest dancers ever seen or a Colored Cast Revue. 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.
Betsey Johnson through hard work and many ups and downs has carved herself a permanent name in fashion. Betsey Johnson was born in Wethersfield Connecticut on August 10, 1942. As a young child Betsey was a dancer who was very inspired by the costumes they wore. She started her college studies at Pratt University but graduated from Syracuse University. After college in 1964 she won a chance to be a guest editor for Mademoiselle Magazine.
A typical, beach bum surfer community, not far from the world famous Venice Beach. A good place to start life for Anissa, but would also provide and enable a very dark and tragic end. When she was two years old her mother had Annissa take dance classes. 1964, was the year that Anissa would have her appointment with destiny to become Buffy, they were almost carbon copies of each other. Anissa was Buffy, and Buffy is Anissa.