ANITA MANN

From Film Choreographers and Dance Directors by Larry Billman, and The Solid Gold Dance Connection...

This vivacious one-woman production team began her dance training quite by accident at the age of 2 - her brother was pigeon-toed and a doctor suggested he take dance lessons. "I went along as his little sister, and knew from the first moment I walked into that dance studio in Detroit that I loved it and had found my home."

When the family moved to St. Louis, she continued studies at the Ford School of Dance and started her career at age 8 in The King and I at the St. Louis Municipal Opera. The family then moved to Los Angeles and her prolific performance career included films (Love and Kisses, Bye, Bye Birdie, Spinout and others), television ("Shindig," "Hullabaloo", Carol Burnett, Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball and Danny Thomas shows, etc.), more stage (as "Anybodys" in West Side Story) and nightclubs in the '60s. She began her choreographic career at 18 by assisting Jack Baker, Jack Regas, Alex Romero and David Winters and she attributes her interest and knowledge of the camera to working with Lucille Ball ("I was always interested in the camera, tracking, all the technical stuff... Lucy taught me everything I know about cameras. She was so fabulous and always wanted whatever it was done right."). As a solo choreographer, she found great acclaim with her work on "Solid Gold", including Emmy nominations, won an Emmy for her work on the 1995 "Miss America Pageant" show, and has been named one of the country's top five contemporary choreographers by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The Holland America cruise line also has enlisted Mann's talents to produce Broadway-style shows aboard their ships. Bill Prince, director of entertainment for the cruise line, said in a statement, "Holland America is proud to be the only cruise line in the industry with an award-winning choreographer creating its shows. Mann has produced Broadway-style shows on many of Holland America's ships."

One of Mann's more recent projects was overseeing the 1998-99 show Tap Girls at Harvey's Resort Hotel and Casino in Lake Tahoe, NV. The revue later traveled across the U.S. "Tap is certainly with us again," said Mann in a Harvey's press release. "Recently, successful shows like Riverdance, Bring In Da Noise Bring In Da Funk, Tap Dogs, and Five Guys Named Moe all featured some form of tap, from classic to modern," she said. Tap Girls is not the first show Mann produced for Harvey's. She also is responsible for the highly successful Dick Clark's American Bandstand Live show, which had a two and a half year run at the hotel, and the 1994 production Blast From the Past.