Dead Celebrity Alert

Irina Baronova, the last of the three “baby ballerinas” whose international careers were launched by choreographer George Balanchine, has died. She was 89.

Ms. Baronova died in her sleep Saturday at her home in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia, according to the Australian News.

She came to fame at the age of 12 when Balanchine cast her in a 1931 Paris staging of composer Jacques Offenbach’s operetta “Orpheus in the Underworld.” French critic Andre Levinson wrote, “The sensation of the evening was the tiny child Baronova, who went through the final galop (gallop) like a whirlwind.” … Read full obituary

October 27, 1927 - May 16, 2008

Jimmy Slyde was the aptly named practitioner of a sinuous, slithering form of tap dance that helped to define the heyday of an ever-changing cultural phenomenon. Whereas modern tap is aggressive, sometimes even obstreperous, Slyde embodied a seemingly effortless ability to, well, slide across a stage, often letting slip the odd mot juste as he made his way past an admiring public.

An early acolyte of such African-American tap legends as Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Slyde in turn helped pave the way for the likes of Savion Glover, who transformed Slyde’s vaunted rhythmic ease into something deliberately rougher and more raw. The two generations of performer were both seen on Broadway in the elaborate 1989 revue Black and Blue, which began in Paris in 1985 before settling into a two year run in New York, where it won three Tony Awards. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946’s “Ziegfeld Follies” to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956’s “The Band Wagon” (with Astaire).

She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin. … Read full obituary

Pilar López, dancer and choreographer, was born on June 4, 1912. She died on March 25, 2008, aged 95

When the critic and exhibition organiser Richard Buckle presented his charity gala The Greatest Show on Earth at the London Coliseum in June 1971, he included the Spanish dancer Pilar López, who at 49 was approaching retirement and known to most of the audience only by repute. Yet her zarzuela solo fully held its own among an assembly of the greatest international stars. Perfect foot and arm placement and glittering castanet playing were among her special qualities.

The López family played a major part in building the big interest in the dances of Spain which flourished worldwide in the Thirties and Forties. … Read full obituary

NEW YORK (AP) — Wayne Frost, a hip-hop pioneer known as “Frosty Freeze” whose acrobatic performance with the legendary Rock Steady Crew in the 1983 hit movie “Flashdance” set off a worldwide breakdancing craze, has died. He was 44.

Frost died Thursday after a long illness, said Jorge “Fabel” Pabon, a senior vice president of the crew where Frost and other so-called b-boys (for beat or break boys) made their name performing complicated and daring dance routines. …

Frost was known for his energetic style, intricate choreography and fearless moves including back flips and head spins. One was even dubbed the “Suicide.”

Frost got his start in 1978 with the Bronx-based Rock City Crew. In 1981, he became part of the Rock Steady Crew, joining such acclaimed breakdancers as Ken Swift and Lil Crazy Legs. … Read full obituary

Choreographer Michael Kidd, whose joyously athletic dances for ballet, Broadway and Hollywood delighted audiences for half a century and won him five Tonys and an Oscar, has died.

Kidd’s nephew, Robert Greenwald, told The New York Times that … Kidd’s age is often listed as 88, but … his uncle was actually 92. …

To moviegoers, Kidd was best known for the 1954 film “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” in which a bunch of earthy backwoodsmen (some of them really stage dancers) prance exuberantly with their prospective brides.

He also directed dances for Danny Kaye in “Knock on Wood,” took Fred Astaire out of his top hat to play a private eye in a Mickey Spillane spoof in “The Band Wagon,” and taught Marlon Brando how to hoof for “Guys and Dolls.”

There is no Oscar category for choreography, so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Kidd with a special award in 1997 for “his services in the art of the dance in the art of the screen.” …

For his work in theater, Kidd won Tonys for “Finian’s Rainbow” (1947), “Guys and Dolls” (1951), “Can-Can” (1954), “Li’l Abner” (1957) and “Destry Rides Again” (1960). … Read full obituary

Belinda Wright, a British ballerina who toured the world and excelled in the 19th-century Romantic and classical repertory, died on Sunday in Zurich, Switzerland. She was 78.

The cause was a coronary ailment, said J. David Enright IV, a spokesman for her family.

Ms. Wright and her husband, the dancer and teacher Jelko Yuresha, lived in Zurich and also had a residence in Manhattan. …

In his 1960 autobiography, [Anton] Dolin called Ms. Wright “the perfect dancer.” He continued, “She has beautiful legs and feet and a body of wonderful proportion, is as light as Markova, with the same ethereal quality and the strange inner emotion of the real artist.”

Like Ms. Markova, Ms. Wright was acclaimed as Giselle, perhaps the greatest role in the Romantic repertory. … Read full obituary

Vilma Ebsen, who danced in the film “Broadway Melody of 1936″ with her brother Buddy long before he became famous on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” has died. She was 96.

Vilma Ebsen, a dance instructor and co-owner of the former Ebsen School of Dancing in Pacific Palisades, died March 12 at the Thousand Oaks Health Care Center, her son Robert Dolan said. …

The song- and-dance team of Vilma and Buddy Ebsen also appeared in the Broadway musical revue “Flying Colors,” in which they introduced “A Shine on Your Shoes,” and were featured in the 1934 edition of “Ziegfeld Follies,” in which they sang “I Like the Likes of You.”

They came to Hollywood the following year to appear in the 1935 MGM movie musical “Broadway Melody of 1936,” in which the Ebsens introduced “Sing Before Breakfast” on a brownstone rooftop with Eleanor Powell. They also performed “On a Sunday Afternoon” and danced in the big “Broadway Rhythm” finale.

It was her only movie appearance. … Read full obituary

Related:
Actor-dancer Buddy Ebsen, 95

Katherine Dunham, a pioneering dancer and choreographer, author and civil rights activist who left Broadway to teach culture in one of America’s poorest cities, has died. She was 96.

Dunham died Sunday at the Manhattan assisted living facility where she lived, said Charlotte Ottley, executive liaison for the organization that preserves her artistic estate. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Dunham was perhaps best known for bringing African and Caribbean influences to the European-dominated dance world. In the late 1930s, she established the nation’s first self-supporting all-black modern dance group.

“We weren’t pushing ‘Black is Beautiful,’ we just showed it,” she later wrote. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Ann Miller, the raven-haired, long-legged actress and dancer whose machine-gun taps won her stardom during the golden age of movie musicals, died Thursday of lung cancer. She was 81.

Miller died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Esme Chandlee, her longtime friend and former publicist.

A onetime childhood dance prodigy, she reached the peak of her film career at MGM in the late 1940s and early ’50s with “On the Town,” “Easter Parade” and “Kiss Me Kate.”

She remained a dazzling tapper in her 60s and earned millions on Broadway and touring with Mickey Rooney in “Sugar Babies,” a razzmatazz tribute to the era of burlesque. … Read full obituary

Hollywood song and dance man Donald O’Connor has died in Los Angeles at the age of 78.

O’Connor started out as a serious actor in the 1930s, but rose to stardom on television opposite a talking mule called Frances, and went on to make a number of films.

But O’Connor is best known for his comedic song and dance routine Make ‘Em Laugh in the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain. … Read full obituary