Deborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer, director, producer, and a former member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated 20 times for an Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards. She has won a Golden Globe Award, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991.
Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.
Gawain Garth Fagan, CD is a Jamaican modern dance choreographer. He is the founder and artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance, a modern dance company based in Rochester, New York.
Charles "Chucky" Klapow is an American choreographer and dance instructor who has performed and choreographed for various performers and several television and stage productions. He is also known for his teachings on the mental approach to dance.
Kenneth "Kenny" John Ortega is an American director, producer, choreographer, and concert creator. He is best known for his work with Disney Channel, notably the High School Musical film trilogy, cult classics such as Newsies and Hocus Pocus, The Cheetah Girls 2, and the first three Descendants films. In 2019 he signed a five year deal with Netflix, producing the original series Julie and the Phantoms, which was cancelled after only one season. He has also choreographed multiple iconic 80's films such as, Xanadu, One from the Heart, St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Dirty Dancing. Ortega has worked on multiple music videos and produced concert tours for the likes of, KISS, Cher, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, and Michael Jackson, notably the cancelled This is It Concert Residency. He also wrote, directed, and produced Jackson's posthumous documentary film, Michael Jackson's This Is It. For his work, Ortega was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Disney Legend Award in 2019.
The Electric Boogaloos are a street dance crew responsible for the spread of popping and electric boogaloo. The name "Boogaloo" came from a song called "Do a Boogaloo" by James Brown, which was also adapted as a Boogaloo street dance done from Oakland, CA. They were founded by Boogaloo Sam in Fresno, California in 1977. Their original name was the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers but "Lockers" was dropped the following year.
The Lockers was a dance group formed by Toni Basil and Don "Campbellock" Campbell in 1971. Active throughout the 1970s, they were pioneers of street dance. Campbell is the founder of the locking dance style, and originally, locking was called The Campbellock—a style that was based on the dance and song that Campbell created. Basil met Campbell at a club in 1971 and together they formed The Lockers as a dance group. Basil, who became Campbell's girlfriend, also served as The Lockers' manager, and was responsible for staging the act. All the dancers contributed steps and choreography with their unique and individual styles. By 1975 they were "dancing their way to stardom" on their own. Individual members' contributions to the dance style and group image coupled with their unique presentation in staging and concept broke down many barriers. It has been said on the reality dance competition So You Think You Can Dance that "The Lockers' emergence on the dance scene changed the face of dance not only for street dancers but for dance in general and has made street dance a true American art form."
Saroj Khan was an Indian dance choreographer in Hindi cinema. She was born in Bombay State, India. She was best known for the dance form mujra and the first woman choreographer in Bollywood. With a career spanning over forty years, she choreographed more than 3000 songs. She died on 3 July 2020 of a sudden cardiac arrest.
Brian L. Friedman is an American dancer and choreographer.
Graciela Daniele is an Argentine-American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director.
The American Choreography Awards was a ceremony and show that honored outstanding choreographers in the fields of feature film, television, music videos, and commercials. They were first known as the L.A. Dance Awards (1994–95), then as Bob Fosse Awards, and a.k.a. Fosse’s (1996–97), and eventually the American Choreography Awards (1998-'04). Each year in the fall, they were held at a different location in Los Angeles, California. These include places such as the Orpheum Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, Alex Theatre, Wilshire Ebell Theatre, The Hollywood Palace, The Museum of Flying, The Century Club, and Club Tatou.
Alexandre Magno is a Brazilian born choreographer and director. His dance styles include hip-hop, jazz, ballet, samba, flamenco, tango, salsa, and martial arts. He has performed with Madonna, Yanni, Britney Spears, the Lido La Tourné, Ballet Hispanico, the Ringling Brothers Circus, and the Academy Awards. He also works with his own dance company, “Personna Dance Theatre".
Travis Payne is an American choreographer, director, and producer. He was the choreographer for Michael Jackson's This Is It until Jackson's death. Payne also served as the associate producer for This Is It and along with the director, Kenny Ortega, was extensively and intimately involved in the making of the film. To date, This Is It worldwide gross revenue totaled $261.3 million during its theatrical run, making it the highest-grossing documentary or concert movie of all time.
Margo Sappington is an American choreographer and dancer. She was nominated in 1975 for both a Tony Award as Best Choreographer and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography for her work on the play Where's Charley?. In 1988, her ballet Virgin Forest was the subject of an award-winning documentary by PBS. In 2005 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for choreography from the Joffrey Ballet.
Antonia Christina Basilotta, better known by her stage name Toni Basil, is an American singer, choreographer, dancer, actress, and director. Her cover of the song "Mickey" topped the charts in the US, Canada and Australia and hit the top ten in several other countries.
Lisa Joann Thompson is an American dancer, choreographer, actress, and model involved in multiple areas of show business. She was a Warrior Girl, Laker Girl, Fly Girl, Motown Live Dancer, and Backup dancer to some of the most prominent artists in the music industry. She starred in the hit television show In Living Color as a Fly Girl during seasons 4 and 5, and was assistant choreographer during season 5.
Julie McDonald is a talent agent and co-founder of McDonald Selznick Associates (MSA), an agency headquartered in Hollywood, California, that represents dancers, choreographers, stage directors, and production designers. She is best known for being the first dance agent i.e. the first talent agent to offer commercial representation for dancers.
Timothy Earl Solomon, known as Popin' Pete, is an American dancer and choreographer who popularized the "popping" dance style and member of the Electric Boogaloos. Pete’s career has spanned over forty years since the emergence of popping dance.
Carey Ysais is an American dancer and choreographer. He is best known as the co-founder, director, and executive producer of a popular monthly show called The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball, which is also the longest running dance show in Los Angeles California.
The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography celebrates outstanding dance and choreography in theatre, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway and in film at an annual ceremony in New York City at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Now carrying the namesake of two-time Tony-winning dance icon Chita Rivera, The Rivera Awards will be presented under the auspices of American Dance Machine, an organization dedicated to the preservation of great musical theatre choreography.
