- Smuin, Michael
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▪ 2008American dancer and choreographerborn Oct. 13, 1938 , Missoula, Mont.died April 23, 2007 , San Francisco, Calif.combined popular music and innovative dance routines to create original ballet works that attracted a wide audience. At the age of 15, Smuin joined the San Francisco Ballet as a dancer (1953–61), and he went on to perform in the Broadway musical Little Me (1962). During the early 1960s, Smuin launched a nightclub dance act with his wife, Paula Tracy (the two divorced in 2000), and toured internationally before joining American Ballet Theatre in 1965 as a choreographer. He returned to the San Francisco Ballet as choreographer and co-director (1973–85) and produced some of its best works, including Romeo and Juliet, A Song for Dead Warriors, and The Tempest, while remaining active in Broadway and film productions. Smuin received an Emmy Award in 1984 for his choreography work on the PBS-TV program Great Performances: Dance in America, and he won a Tony Award as choreographer for the Broadway musical Anything Goes (1988). In 1994 he established the Smuin Ballet, which produced fresh, entertaining productions that featured the music of the Beatles, George Gershwin, and Frank Sinatra as well as elements of break dancing, jazz, tap, and tango. Other productions included Stabat Mater (2002), a tribute to the victims of 9/11; Zorro (2003); and the annual Christmas Ballet, complete with tap-dancing Christmas trees.
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Universalium. 2010.
