Michael Kidd

For the Australian general practitioner, see Michael Kidd (physician). For the American basketball player, see Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

Michael Kidd
Kidd on the set of The Band Wagon
Born
Milton Greenwald

(1915-08-12)August 12, 1915
New York City, U.S.
DiedDecember 23, 2007(2007-12-23) (aged 92)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Choreographer, dancer, actor
Years active1937–1996
Spouse(s)Mary Heater (m.1940)
Shelah Hackett (m.1969)
Children4

Michael Kidd (August 12, 1915 – December 23, 2007) was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and who staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.

He was probably best known for his athletic dance numbers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a 1954 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical. Film critic Stephanie Zacharek called the barn-raising sequence in Seven Brides "one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen".[1] He was the first choreographer to win five Tony Awards,[2] and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1996 for advancing dance in film.

  1. ^ Gold, Sylviane (March 2008). "DEATHS: Michael Kidd (1915–2007)". Dance Magazine. 82 (3): 88–89.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dance Teacher was invoked but never defined (see the help page).