MICHAEL SMUIN

From Film Choreographers and Dance Directors by Larry Billman...

At the age of 6, Michael Smuin attended a performance of the Ballet Russe and it changed his life forever. "It was instantaneous," he said. "The curtain opened and this magic started happening, and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to make ballet, or do it, or somehow be in it." After added inspiration by seeing Paul Draper dance, at the age of 7 he was taking tap lessons with Pauline Ellis and was performing around Montana as a member of The Wise Guys dance troupe. He soon received a scholarship to study with William Christensen at the University of Utah, and was then invited to join the San Francisco Ballet. After choreographing for the Bay Area Ballet and San Francisco Opera, he created La Ronde for the SF Ballet in 1961.

Smuin danced on Broadway in Little Me and formed a successful dance team with his wife, appearing in nightclubs and on television for three years. After choreographing for American Ballet Theater and Harkness, he was appointed director of the SF Ballet in 1973 and led the company to success with much needed exposure through TV appearances on PBS "Dance In America" series. He began choreographing for films with 1983's Rumble Fish fight scenes and continued to acclaim with The Cotton Club, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the long-awaited film adaptation of The Fantasticks. He earned a Tony award for his 1987 Broadway revival of Anything Goes and formed Smuin Ballets/SF in 1994, where he continues as choreographer and director.

In 2003, he choreographed Dancin' with Gershwin for Smuin Ballet and St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet for Dance Theatre of Harlem.