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Myra Kinch (1904 - November 20, 1981) was a choreographer and dancer who appeared in several Hollywood motion pictures. She was from Los Angeles, California. Her eyes were blue and her hair was a dark red.
She was a UCLA graduate. Kinch trained with the ethnologist La Meri and the ballet teachers Muriel Stuart, Eugenie Eduardova, and Vincenzo Celli.
In March 1928 the interpretive dancer appeared in a program presented by the University Club of the San Fernando Valley. The event took place at the Hotel Porter in Los Angeles. Kinch was a former classmate of many of those in the fifty member organization. Representing the Pasadena Playhouse, she danced a number of gypsy and oriental numbers.
The following year Kinch was in a musical revue at the Lazarus Million Dollar Theater with singer Buddy Garry and a chorus of showgirls. By then she was a seasoned dancer who had worked with George White's Scandals in New York City.
Kinch's first solo performance came while abroad in Germany, at the Max Reinhardt theater in Berlin. She returned to America to star at the New Open Air Theater in Los Angeles. She performed there at the time of the 1932 Summer Olympics. Kinch had a second solo engagement at the Politeama Theater in Mexico City.
Her screen credits are sparse, numbering only three. Kinch debuted in films with an uncredited role in the comedy short The Beach Club (1928). Likewise she was uncredited in the part of a dancer in the Oscar-winning The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935). In between she was a laughing singer in Redskin (1929).
Kinch returned to the United States to become director and choreographer of the West Coast Dance Project of the Federal Theater Project. Later she was choreographer for the opera department of the Federal Music Project.
In 1948 Kinch was named head of the modern dance department at the Jacob's Pillow dance school and summer festival in Becket, Massachusetts. She remained in this position for twenty-five years.
In January 1963 Kinch and her dance company performed at the Newport, Rhode Island Civic Music Association. Her dance repertoire was composed of satire and spoofs. She lampooned diverse subjects like bullfighting, a weary circus dancer, a family of acrobats, and stereotypes of classic ballet.
Kinch performed through the 1960s. She regularly toured with dancer Ralph McWilliams and composer-pianist Manuel Galea. Galea became her husband.
Kinch was praised as one of the brightest and most imaginative of American dancers. Critics admired her ultramodern and daring routines. Among her popular parodies were Tomb For Two, Bolero For A Bad Bull, A Waltz Is A Waltz Is A Waltz, and Giselle's Revenge. The latter was a well researched rendition of the excesses of Giselle, the Romanticism period ballet.
Among the more candid works she choreographed were two popular dances for Ted Shawn, modern dance innovator and founder of Jacob's Pillow. In The Bajour Shawn played a gypsy king. He also had the lead in her Sundered Majesty, which was based on King Lear.
Myra Kinch died in Bonita Springs, Florida in 1981. She was 77. She was survived by her husband.
George Balanchine was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California, helped many perfect their dancing talents and became the first dance academy in the United States to produce a professional dance company. Some of the school's more notable pupils include Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Lillian Powell, Charles Weidman, Jack Cole, and silent film star Louise Brooks. The school was especially renowned for its influence on ballet and experimental modern dance. In time, Denishawn teachings reached another school location as well - Studio 61 at the Carnegie Hall Studios.
Jerome Robbins was an American choreographer, director, dancer, and theater producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Ted Shawn was one of the first notable male pioneers of American modern dance. Along with creating the Denishawn School with former wife Ruth St. Denis he was also responsible for the creation of the well-known all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. With his innovative ideas of masculine movement, he was one of the most influential choreographers and dancers of his day. He was also the founder and creator of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, and "was knighted by the King of Denmark for his efforts on behalf of the Royal Danish Ballet."
Darci Kistler is an American ballerina. She is often said to be the last muse for choreographer George Balanchine.
Ann Reinking was an American dancer, actress, choreographer and singer. She worked extensively in musical theater, starring in Broadway productions such as Coco (1969), Over Here! (1974), Goodtime Charley (1975), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Sweet Charity (1986).
Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives as well as year-round community programs. The facility itself was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2003.
Alicia Alonso was a Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer whose company became the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1955. She is best known for her portrayals of Giselle and the ballet version of Carmen.
Cynthia Kathleen Gregory is an American former prima ballerina.
Jack Cole was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as "the Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance".
Nora Kaye-Ross was an American prima-ballerina known for her ability to perform dramatic roles. Called the Duse of Dance after the acclaimed actress Eleonora Duse, she also worked in films as a choreographer and producer and performed on Broadway.
Marjorie Celeste Champion was an American dancer and actress. At 14, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a television show based on song and dance. She also did creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.
Olga Alexandrovna Spessivtseva was a Russian ballerina whose stage career spanned from 1913 to 1939.
Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez. MCB was founded in 1985 by Toby Lerner Ansin, a Miami philanthropist. Ansin and the founding board hired Edward Villella, former New York City Ballet principal dancer to be the founding artistic director.
Patricia McBride is a ballerina who spent nearly 30 years dancing with the New York City Ballet. McBride joined the New York City Ballet in 1959. She became a principal in 1961, becoming the company's youngest principal. She danced with the company for 30 years, including roles created for her by choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
Marion Burbank Stevens Rice was an American modern dance choreographer, dance teacher and producer.
Sarah Lane is an American ballet dancer who was a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre (ABT). She served as a "dance double" for Natalie Portman in the 2010 film Black Swan.
Pauline Koner was an American dancer and choreographer. She was best known for her stage shows at the Roxy Theater.
Dorothy Lyndall was an American dancer and dance educator.
Eugenia Eduardova was a Russian ballet dancer and teacher.
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