Famous Choregraphers, Dance Teachers “M...-N...-O...-”
for performance, language & visual arts, music, social studies, classrooms, home schoolers.

Frankie Manning
Alicia Markova

Leonide Massine
Beryl McBurnie

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop

Frankie Manning
b. 5-26-1914; Jacksonville, FL
d. 4-27-2009; NYC

Frankie Manning, a dancer, teacher and choreographer, is remembered as one of the founders of the Lindy Hop, a dance that got its name from aviator Charles Lindbergh's “hop” of the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

Manning, and his partner Frieda Washington, performed the first air step (an aerial) in a swing dance competition. He also worked with singer/dancer Norma Miller, known as the “Queen of Swing”.

Frankie Manning quote ~
• “I never taught people where to step on '2', because when I learned how to dance there was no '2'. We just danced to the music.”

• Black History posters

Alicia Markova, née Lilian Alicia Marks
b. 12-1-1910; London
d. 12-2-2004; Bath, England

Alicia Markova, the first British dancer to be bestowed the title of Prima Ballerina Assoluta, is widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers in history.

After her retirement from active dance, she continued to play a role in the ballet and theatre industry as a teacher, director and choreographer.

Leonide Massine
b. 8-9-1897; Moscow
d. 3-15-1979; Cologne, West Germany

Léonide Massine, a ballet dancer and choreographer most often associated with the Ballets Russes, created the world's first symphonic ballet, Les Présages, using Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

Massine also appeared in both ballet movies The Red Shoes (1948) and Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

Beryl McBurnie
b. 11-2-1915; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
d. 3-3-2000; Trinidad and Tobago

Dancer, choreographer and teacher Beryl McBurnie is celebrated as the person saving the traditions of dance in Trinidad. She studied with Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Katharine Dunham and taught Pearl Primus.

Igor Alexandrovich Moiseyev
b. 1-21-1906; Kiev
d. 11-2-2007

Igor Moiseyev was a choreographer of “character dance”, a style similar to folk dance but with more professionalism and theatrics for the Theatre of Folk Art. One of Moiseyev’s choreographed dances is known as the Bulba (potato), based on Belarusian folk dance moves, became the national dance of Belarus.

Moiseyev was a graduate of the Bolshoi Theatre ballet school in 1924.

Vaslav Nijinsky
b. 3-12-1890; Kiev, Ukraine
d. 4-8-1950; London

Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, was a member of Ballet Russe organized by Sergei Diaghilev. Celebrated for his virtuosity and creativity, Nijinsky was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated by psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler. The music for the ballet Scheherazade was composed by Rimsky-Korsakov.

• Nijinsky, VHS
• The Outsider by Colin Wilson