CHITA RIVERA

Most recently appearing on Broadway in the musical Nine, Chita Rivera is an accomplished and versatile actress/singer/dancer. Universally regarded as an American national treasure, Chita is a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center honor presented by the President of the United States. She has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received six additional Tony Award nominations.

Chita Rivera was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in Washington, D.C., on January 23, 1933, with parents from Puerto Rico. Her father played clarinet and saxophone for the Navy Band; after his death when Chita was 7, her mother went to work at the Pentagon.

Young Conchita was a tomboy. To tone down her rambunctiousness, when she was 11 her mother enrolled her in the Jones-Hayward School of Ballet, a school run by an impressive pair of black women, Doris Jones and Claire Haywood. When Conchita was 15, a teacher from George Balanchine's School of American Ballet visited their studio. She was one of two students picked to audition in New York.

At the audition, Doris Jones calmed her student with a piece of advice. "Conchita, stay in your lane." Meaning, "Don't worry about the long bodies and blond ponytails lining up next to you for the auditions; be who you are!" Chita Rivera never forgot it.

She was accepted on the basis of her audition and given a scholarship to the American School of Ballet by the legendary George Balanchine. Her teachers included some of the top American dancers of the century, Edward Villella, Allegra Kent and Maria Tallchief among them. Soon, however, the ballet world lost - and Broadway gained - a future star when the 17-year-old aspiring ballerina accompanied a friend to the auditions for Call Me Madam. It was Conchita who got the part! Other roles quickly followed in such shows as Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven, and Mr. Wonderful with Sammy Davis, Jr.

Then, in 1957, Broadway history was made when Chita's electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of West Side Story brought her stardom. Chita's talent enabled the brilliant Jerome Robbins to realize his groundbreaking choreographic vision for the production. Indeed, her performance was so central to the success of the show that the London production was postponed until after Chita had given birth to her daughter, by then-husband Tony Mordente, Lisa Mordente.

Rosie, the starring role in Bye Bye Birdie, followed, and Chita returned to the West End in 1960 to reprise her performance in that role as well. On national tour, Chita starred in Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Call Me Madam, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, and a national tour of Can-Can with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes that took her to Japan. Chita also played "Nickie" in the film version of Sweet Charity with Shirley MacLaine. In a wry tribute to Chita's celebrated performance in Sweet Charity, she has a stunning cameo in the film version of Chicago - as a character named "Nickie." Despite the many highlights of her stellar and historic career, Chita always maintains that her most treasured production is her daughter, singer/dancer/choreographer Lisa Mordente.