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69-416: The awards are given for theatre and film productions and performances for each season they fall in. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient and an Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre and Film award. The awards were named after Fred and Adele Astaire . The awards for Off-Broadway performances and productions were first presented with

138-639: A bet after this one, for he's distinctly likable on the screen, the mike is kind to his voice and as a dancer, he remains in a class by himself. The latter observation will be no news to the profession, which has long admitted that Astaire starts dancing where the others stop hoofing. Having already been linked to his sister Adele on stage, Astaire was initially very reluctant to become part of another dance team. He wrote his agent, "I don't mind making another picture with her, but as for this 'team' idea, it's 'out!' I've just managed to live down one partnership and I don't want to be bothered with any more." However, he

207-429: A following an unpredictable and instinctive muse. His motion was economical, yet endlessly nuanced. Jerome Robbins stated, "Astaire's dancing looks so simple, so disarming, so easy, yet the understructure, the way he sets the steps on, over or against the music, is so surprising and inventive." Astaire's most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers , with whom he co-starred in 10 Hollywood musicals during

276-462: A notable departure for Astaire from his usual charming, happy-go-lucky screen persona, and confused contemporary critics. His next partner, Lucille Bremer , was featured in two lavish vehicles, both directed by Vincente Minnelli . The fantasy Yolanda and the Thief (1945) featured an avant-garde surrealistic ballet. In the musical revue Ziegfeld Follies (1945), Astaire danced with Gene Kelly to

345-411: A percentage of the films' profits, something scarce in actors' contracts at that time. Astaire revolutionized dance on film by having complete autonomy over its presentation. He is credited with two important innovations in early film musicals. First, he insisted that a closely tracking dolly camera film a dance routine in as few shots as possible, typically with just four to eight cuts, while holding

414-404: A profit on its first release. Soon after, Astaire, along with most of the other remaining stars at MGM, was dismissed by the studio due to the advent of television and the streamlining of film production. In 1954, Astaire was about to start work on a new musical, Daddy Long Legs (1955) with Leslie Caron at 20th Century-Fox . Then, his wife Phyllis became ill and died of lung cancer. Astaire

483-577: A role for him on Galactica because of his grandchildren's interest in the series and the producers were delighted at the opportunity to create an entire episode to feature him. This episode marked the final time that he danced on screen, in this case with Anne Jeffreys . He acted in nine different roles in The Man in the Santa Claus Suit in 1979. His final film was the 1981 adaptation of Peter Straub 's novel Ghost Story . This horror film

552-501: A screen test report on Astaire for RKO Radio Pictures , now lost along with the test, is reported to have read: "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little." The producer of the Astaire–Rogers pictures, Pandro S. Berman , claimed he had never heard the story in the 1930s and that it only emerged years afterward. Astaire later clarified, insisting that the report had read: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances ." In any case,

621-452: A series of four highly rated Emmy Award -winning musical specials for television in 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1968. Each featured Barrie Chase , with whom Astaire enjoyed a renewed period of dance creativity. The first of these programs, 1958's An Evening with Fred Astaire , won nine Emmy Awards, including "Best Single Performance by an Actor" and "Most Outstanding Single Program of the Year". It

690-566: A skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began ... the reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable. According to Astaire, "Ginger had never danced with a partner before Flying Down to Rio . She faked it an awful lot. She couldn't tap and she couldn't do this and that ... but Ginger had style and talent and improved as she went along. She got so that after

759-601: A spirited solo on "I Won't Dance"), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), Carefree (1938), and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). Six out of the nine Astaire–Rogers musicals became the biggest moneymakers for RKO; all of the films brought a certain prestige and artistry that all studios coveted at the time. Their partnership elevated them both to stardom; as Katharine Hepburn reportedly said, "He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal." Astaire received

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828-417: A view shared by Hermes Pan and Stanley Donen . Film critic Pauline Kael adopts a more neutral stance, while Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel writes "The nostalgia surrounding Rogers–Astaire tends to bleach out other partners." Mueller sums up Rogers's abilities as follows: Rogers was outstanding among Astaire's partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer, but because, as

897-453: A well received television film A Family Upside Down in which they played an elderly couple coping with failing health. Astaire won an Emmy Award for his performance. He made a well publicized guest appearance on the science-fiction television series Battlestar Galactica in 1979, as Chameleon, the possible father of Starbuck , in "The Man with Nine Lives", a role written for him by Donald P. Bellisario . Astaire asked his agent to obtain

966-676: A while everyone else who danced with me looked wrong." On p. 162 of his book Ginger: Salute to a Star , author Dick Richards quotes Astaire saying to Raymond Rohauer, curator of the New York Gallery of Modern Art, "Ginger was brilliantly effective. She made everything work for her. Actually, she made things very fine for both of us and she deserves most of the credit for our success." In 1976, British talk-show host Michael Parkinson asked Astaire who his favorite dancing partner was, on Parkinson . At first, Astaire refused to answer but ultimately he said "Excuse me, I must say Ginger

1035-724: The Fred Astaire Dance Studios , which he subsequently sold in 1966. Astaire's retirement did not last long. He returned to the big screen to replace an injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade (1948) opposite Judy Garland , Ann Miller , and Peter Lawford . He followed up with a final reunion with Rogers (replacing Judy Garland) in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949). Both of these films revived Astaire's popularity and in 1950 he starred in two musicals. Three Little Words with Vera-Ellen and Red Skelton

1104-699: The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role . He starred in more than 10 Broadway and West End musicals, made 31 musical films , four television specials, and numerous recordings. Astaire declared that his own tap heroes were the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold . Astaire was honored with the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1973,

1173-574: The Independent Theatre Owners of America . Astaire was reunited with Rogers in 1949 at MGM for their final outing, The Barkleys of Broadway , the only one of their films together to be shot in Technicolor . Astaire left RKO in 1939 to freelance and pursue new film opportunities, with mixed though generally successful outcomes. Throughout this period, Astaire continued to value the input of choreographic collaborators. Unlike

1242-768: The Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, and AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Astaire the fifth-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema in 100 Years... 100 Stars . Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899 in Omaha, Nebraska ,

1311-548: The classic age of Hollywood cinema , including Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Astaire's fame grew in films like Holiday Inn (1942), Easter Parade (1948), The Band Wagon (1953), Funny Face (1957), and Silk Stockings (1957). For his performance in John Guillermin 's disaster film, The Towering Inferno (1974), Astaire received his only competitive Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor , and he won

1380-604: The "best dance on Broadway in the categories of best choreographer, best female dancer and best male dancer." The first Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Tommy Tune in 2008. The awards were expanded to include dance in and choreography for film in 2008. Stanley Donen received the Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. Other Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Kenny Ortega in 2010, and Jacques D’Amboise in 2011. Liza Minnelli received

1449-648: The 1920s, Fred and Adele appeared on Broadway and the London stage . They won popular acclaim with the theater crowd on both sides of the Atlantic in shows such as Jerome Kern 's The Bunch and Judy (1922), George and Ira Gershwin 's Lady, Be Good (1924), and Funny Face (1927) and later in The Band Wagon (1931). Astaire's tap dancing was recognized by then as among the best. For example, Robert Benchley wrote in 1930, "I don't think that I will plunge

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1518-467: The 1930s when he worked almost exclusively with Hermes Pan, he tapped the talents of other choreographers to innovate continually. His first post-Ginger dance partner was the redoubtable Eleanor Powell , considered the most exceptional female tap-dancer of her generation. They starred in Broadway Melody of 1940 , in which they performed a celebrated extended dance routine to Cole Porter's " Begin

1587-399: The 2016 awards. Now named The Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography, The Fred and Adele Astaire Awards were established in 1982. It was initially known as simply The Astaire Awards. The award was established with the cooperation of Fred Astaire to honor him and his sister, Adele, who starred with her brother in ten Broadway musicals between 1917 and 1931. The awards previously honored

1656-552: The Academy to establish several new categories, and to honor exceptional career achievements, contributions to the motion picture industry, and service to the Academy. Years for which the Special Award and Honorary Award recipients received their awards and the annual Academy Awards ceremonies at which they received them provided within parentheses throughout (as pertinent) follow this information for recipients listed in

1725-565: The Astaires went to Hollywood for a screen test (now lost) at Paramount Pictures , but Paramount deemed them unsuitable for films. They split in 1932 when Adele married her first husband, Lord Charles Cavendish , the second son of the 9th Duke of Devonshire . Fred went on to achieve success on his own on Broadway and in London with Gay Divorce (later made into the film The Gay Divorcee ) while considering offers from Hollywood. The end of

1794-573: The Beguine ". In his autobiography Steps in Time , Astaire remarked, "She 'put 'em down' like a man, no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself." He played alongside Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn (1942) and later Blue Skies (1946). But, in spite of the enormous financial success of both, he was reportedly dissatisfied with roles where he lost

1863-597: The Cursed Child , received the inaugural Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award. Sergio Trujillo won the award for Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical ; Zach Morris and Jennine Willet won the award for Outstanding Choreography in an Off-Broadway Show for Ghost Light ; and the award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show was a tie between Carousel and Mean Girls . Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz , May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987)

1932-521: The Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012, Marge Champion was the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2013, and Patricia Birch received the award in 2014. Joel Grey received the 2015 Watt Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as film producer Harvey Weinstein (Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre & Film). The Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016 was given to Judith Jamison , and Maurice Hines

2001-699: The Gershwin song "The Babbit and the Bromide", a song Astaire had introduced with his sister Adele back in 1927. While Follies was a hit, Yolanda bombed at the box office. Always insecure and believing his career was beginning to falter, Astaire surprised his audiences by announcing his retirement during the production of his next film, Blue Skies (1946). He nominated "Puttin' on the Ritz" as his farewell dance. After announcing his retirement in 1946, Astaire concentrated on his horse-racing interests and in 1947 founded

2070-654: The U.S. Soon Adele grew to at least three inches taller than Fred, and the pair began to look incongruous. The family decided to take a two-year break from showbusiness to let time take its course and to avoid trouble from the Gerry Society and the child-labor laws of the time. In 1912, Astaire became an Episcopalian . The career of the Astaire siblings resumed with mixed fortunes, but with increasing skill and polish, as they began to incorporate tap dancing into their act. From vaudeville dancer Aurelio Coccia they learned

2139-492: The age of 25 on October 26, 1893 at Ellis Island . Fritz was seeking work in the brewing trade and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was employed by the Storz Brewing Company . Astaire's mother dreamed of escaping Omaha by means of her children's talents. Astaire's older sister Adele was an instinctive dancer and singer early in her childhood. Johanna planned a brother-and-sister act, common in vaudeville at

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2208-669: The award for Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show and Sweet Charity won the award for Outstanding Choreography In An Off-Broadway Show. The award nominations for 2018 were presented on May 20, 2018. The Broadway revival of Carousel received the most nominations, with seven. Carmen De Lavallade (Lifetime Achievement Award), John Kander (Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater Award) and Harold Prince (SDC Director Award for Exemplary Collaboration with Choreographers) received special awards. Steven Hoggett , on Broadway this season with Angels in America and Harry Potter and

2277-476: The centerpiece of Jerome Robbins 's 1983 New York City Ballet tribute to Astaire. He next appeared opposite the seventeen-year-old Joan Leslie in the wartime comedy The Sky's the Limit (1943). In it, he introduced Arlen and Mercer 's " One for My Baby " while dancing on a bar counter in a dark and troubled routine. Astaire choreographed this film alone and achieved modest box office success. It represented

2346-586: The competitive Academy Awards. Unlike the Special Achievement Award instituted in 1972, those on whom the Academy confers its Honorary Award do not have to meet "the Academy's eligibility year and deadline requirements". Like the Special Achievement Award, the Special Award and Honorary Award have been used to reward significant achievements of the year that did not fit in existing categories, subsequently leading

2415-425: The dancers in full view at all times. This gave the illusion of an almost stationary camera filming an entire dance in a single shot. Astaire famously quipped: "Either the camera will dance, or I will." Astaire maintained this policy from The Gay Divorcee in 1934 until his last film musical, Finian's Rainbow in 1968, when director Francis Ford Coppola overruled him. Astaire's style of dance sequences allowed

2484-628: The girl to Crosby. The former film is memorable for his virtuoso solo dance to "Let's Say it with Firecrackers". The latter film featured " Puttin' On the Ritz ", an innovative song-and-dance routine indelibly associated with him. Other partners during this period included Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus (1940), in which he dance-conducted the Artie Shaw orchestra. He made two pictures with Rita Hayworth . The first film, You'll Never Get Rich (1941), catapulted Hayworth to stardom. In

2553-687: The job on an Astaire picture, and no cutting corners." Despite their success, Astaire was unwilling to have his career tied exclusively to any partnership. He negotiated with RKO to strike out on his own with A Damsel in Distress in 1937 with an inexperienced, non-dancing Joan Fontaine , unsuccessfully as it turned out. He returned to make two more films with Rogers, Carefree (1938) and The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). While both films earned respectable gross incomes, they both lost money because of increased production costs, and Astaire left RKO after being labeled " box office poison " by

2622-411: The mailman narrator S.D Kluger in the 1970s Rankin/Bass animated television specials Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town . Astaire also appeared in the first two That's Entertainment! documentaries, in the mid-1970s. In the second compilation, aged seventy-six, he performed brief dance linking sequences with Kelly, his last dance performances in a musical film. In

2691-507: The movie, Astaire integrated for the third time Latin American dance idioms into his style (the first being with Ginger Rogers in "The Carioca" number from Flying Down to Rio (1933) and the second, again with Rogers, was the "Dengozo" dance from The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). His second film with Hayworth, You Were Never Lovelier (1942), was equally successful. It featured a duet to Kern's " I'm Old Fashioned ", which became

2760-593: The nation into war by stating that Fred is the greatest tap-dancer in the world." While in London, Fred studied piano at the Guildhall School of Music alongside his friend and colleague Noël Coward , and in 1926, was one of the judges at the ' Charleston Championship of the World ' competition at the Royal Albert Hall , where Lew Grade was declared the winner. After the close of Funny Face ,

2829-450: The partnership was traumatic for Astaire but stimulated him to expand his range. Free of the brother-sister constraints of the former pairing and working with new partner Claire Luce , Fred created a romantic partnered dance to Cole Porter 's " Night and Day ", which had been written for Gay Divorce . Luce stated that she had to encourage him to take a more romantic approach: "Come on, Fred, I'm not your sister, you know." The success of

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2898-531: The plotlines of the film. Instead of using dance as a spectacle as Busby Berkeley did, Astaire used it to move the plot along. Typically, an Astaire picture would include at least three standard dances. One would be a solo performance by Astaire, which he termed his "sock solo". Another would be a partnered comedy dance routine. Finally, he would include a partnered romantic dance routine. Dance commentators Arlene Croce , Hannah Hyam and John Mueller consider Rogers to have been Astaire's greatest dance partner,

2967-826: The program won a technical Emmy in 1988 for Ed Reitan, Don Kent, and Dan Einstein. They restored the original videotape, transferring its contents to a modern format and filling in gaps where the tape had deteriorated with kinescope footage. Astaire played Julian Osborne, a non-dancing character, in the nuclear war drama On the Beach (1959). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor award for his performance, losing to Stephen Boyd in Ben-Hur . Astaire appeared in non-dancing roles in three other films and several television series from 1957 to 1969. Astaire also wrote his own autobiography, titled Steps in Time , which he published in 1959. Astaire's last major musical film

3036-417: The separate annual Governors Awards rather than at the regular Academy Awards ceremony. The Honorary Award celebrates motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of competitive Academy Awards are not excluded from receiving the award. Unless otherwise specified, Honorary Award recipients receive the same gold Oscar statuettes received by winners of

3105-726: The son of Johanna "Ann" (née Geilus; 1878–1975) and Friedrich "Fritz" Emanuel Austerlitz (1868–1923), known in the U.S. as Frederic Austerlitz. Astaire's mother was born in the U.S. to Lutheran German immigrants from East Prussia and Alsace . Astaire's father was born in Linz in Upper Austria , then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , to Catholic parents who had converted from Judaism . Astaire's father Fritz Austerlitz arrived in New York City at

3174-645: The stage play was credited to this number, and when recreated in The Gay Divorcee (1934), the film version of the play, it ushered in a new era in filmed dance. Recently, film footage taken by Fred Stone of Astaire performing in Gay Divorce with Luce's successor, Dorothy Stone, in New York in 1933 was uncovered by dancer and historian Betsy Baytos and now represents the earliest known performance footage of Astaire. According to Hollywood folklore,

3243-442: The successful musical film Dancing Lady . In the movie, he appeared as himself dancing with Joan Crawford . On his return to RKO, he got fifth billing after fourth-billed Ginger Rogers in the 1933 Dolores del Río vehicle Flying Down to Rio . In a review, Variety magazine attributed its massive success to Astaire's presence: The main point of Flying Down to Rio is the screen promise of Fred Astaire ... He's assuredly

3312-528: The summer of 1975, he made three albums in London, Attitude Dancing , They Can't Take These Away from Me , and A Couple of Song and Dance Men , the last an album of duets with Bing Crosby. In 1976, Astaire played a supporting role, as a dog owner, in the cult movie The Amazing Dobermans , co-starring Barbara Eden and James Franciscus , and played Dr. Seamus Scully in the French film The Purple Taxi (1977). In 1978, he co-starred with Helen Hayes in

3381-458: The sumptuousness of the production and the good reviews from critics, the movie failed to recover its cost. Astaire's next film, Silk Stockings (1957), in which he co-starred with Cyd Charisse and his final musical for MGM, also lost money at the box office. Afterward, Astaire announced that he was retiring from dancing in films. His legacy at this point was 30 musical films in 25 years. Astaire did not retire from dancing altogether. He made

3450-612: The tango, waltz and other ballroom dances popularized by Vernon and Irene Castle . Some sources state that the Astaire siblings appeared in a 1915 film titled Fanchon, the Cricket , starring Mary Pickford , but the Astaires have consistently denied this. By age 14, Astaire had assumed the musical responsibilities for their act. He first met George Gershwin , who was working as a song plugger for Jerome H. Remick 's music publishing company, in 1916. Astaire had already been hunting for new music and dance ideas. Their chance meeting

3519-451: The test was clearly disappointing, and David O. Selznick , who had signed Astaire to RKO and commissioned the test, stated in a memo, "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test." However, this did not affect RKO's plans for Astaire. They lent him for a few days to MGM in 1933 for his significant Hollywood debut in

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3588-687: The time, for her two children. Although Fred refused dance lessons at first, he easily mimicked his older sister's steps and learned piano , accordion and clarinet . When their father lost his job, the family moved to New York City in January 1905 to launch the show business careers of the children. They began training at the Alvieni Master School of the Theatre and Academy of Cultural Arts. Fred and Adele's mother suggested that they change their name to Astaire, as she felt that Austerlitz

3657-506: The viewer to follow the dancers and choreography in their entirety. This style differed strikingly from those in the Busby Berkeley musicals. Those musicals' sequences were filled with extravagant aerial shots, dozens of cuts for quick takes, and zooms on areas of the body such as a chorus row of arms or legs. Astaire's second innovation involved the context of the dance; he was adamant that all song and dance routines be integral to

3726-440: Was Finian's Rainbow (1968), directed by Francis Ford Coppola . Astaire shed his white tie and tails to play an Irish rogue who believes that if he buries a crock of gold in the shadows of Fort Knox the gold will multiply. Astaire's dance partner was Petula Clark , who played his character's skeptical daughter. He described himself as nervous about singing with her, while she said she was worried about dancing with him. The film

3795-454: Was a modest success both at the box office and among critics. Astaire continued to act in the 1970s. He appeared on television as the father of Robert Wagner 's character, Alexander Mundy, in It Takes a Thief . In the movie The Towering Inferno (1974), he danced with Jennifer Jones and received his only Academy Award nomination, in the category of Best Supporting Actor . He voiced

3864-546: Was also noteworthy for being the first major broadcast to be prerecorded on color videotape. Astaire won the Emmy for Best Single Performance by an Actor. The choice had a controversial backlash because many believed his dancing in the special was not the type of "acting" for which the award was designed. At one point, Astaire offered to return the award, but the Television Academy refused to consider it. A restoration of

3933-573: Was also the last for two of his most prominent castmates, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Academy Honorary Award The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award , which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Since 2009, it has been presented at

4002-401: Was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "greatest popular-music dancer of all time" and received numerous accolades, including an Honorary Academy Award , three Primetime Emmy Awards , a BAFTA Award , two Golden Globe Awards , and a Grammy Award . As a dancer, he

4071-443: Was an abundance of good dancing, Fred Astaire stood out ... He and his partner, Adele Astaire, made the show pause early in the evening with a beautiful loose-limbed dance." Adele's sparkle and humor drew much of the attention, owing in part to Fred's careful preparation and sharp supporting choreography. She still set the tone of their act but by this time, Astaire's dancing skill was beginning to outshine his sister's. During

4140-402: Was certainly, [uh, uh,] the one. You know, the most effective partner I ever had. Everyone knows." Rogers described Astaire's uncompromising standards extending to the whole production: "Sometimes he'll think of a new line of dialogue or a new angle for the story ... they never know what time of night he'll call up and start ranting enthusiastically about a fresh idea ... No loafing on

4209-648: Was directed by Randy Skinner and hosted by Bebe Neuwirth . Nominations for the Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography were announced on May 1, 2017, and included the first Lifetime Achievement Award to Tommy Tune and the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater as Director to Diane Paulus. The new musical Bandstand received 5 nominations, and the Off-Broadway production of Sweet Charity received 6 nominations. Bandstand won

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4278-508: Was for MGM. Let's Dance with Betty Hutton was on loan-out to Paramount. While Three Little Words did quite well at the box office, Let's Dance was a financial disappointment. Royal Wedding (1951) with Jane Powell and Peter Lawford proved to be very successful, but The Belle of New York (1952) with Vera-Ellen was a critical and box-office disaster. The Band Wagon (1953) received rave reviews from critics and drew huge crowds. However, because of its high cost, it failed to make

4347-667: Was given a special recognition award for Outstanding Body of Work in Dance. On March 30, 2017, it was announced that the Astaire Awards were "rebranded" as the Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography. The awards will be presented by the American Dance Machine for the 21st Century, with the first awards presented on September 11, 2017, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York City. The show

4416-538: Was known for his uncanny sense of rhythm, creativity, effortless presentation, and tireless perfectionism, which was sometimes a burden to co-workers. His dancing showed elegance, grace, originality, and precision. He drew influences from many sources, including tap, classical dance, and the elevated style of Vernon and Irene Castle . His trademark style greatly influenced the American Smooth style of ballroom dance . He called his eclectic approach "outlaw style",

4485-574: Was often given a top hat to make him look taller. In November 1905, the comedic act debuted in Keyport, New Jersey at a "tryout theater." The local paper wrote that "the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville." As a result of their father's salesmanship, Fred and Adele Astaire landed a major contract and played the Orpheum Circuit in the Midwest, West and some Southern cities in

4554-478: Was persuaded by the apparent public appeal of the Astaire–Rogers pairing. The partnership, and the choreography of Astaire and Hermes Pan , helped make dancing an important element of the Hollywood film musical . Astaire and Rogers made nine films together at RKO: Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935, in which Astaire also demonstrates his oft-overlooked piano skills with

4623-518: Was reminiscent of the Battle of Austerlitz . Family legend attributes the name to an uncle surnamed L'Astaire. The children were taught dance, speaking and singing in preparation for developing an act. Their first act was called Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty . Astaire wore a top hat and tails in the first half and a lobster outfit in the second. In an interview, Astaire's daughter Ava Astaire McKenzie, observed that he

4692-443: Was so desolate that he wanted to shut down the picture and offered to pay the production costs out of his own pocket. However, Johnny Mercer , the film's composer, and Fox studio executives convinced him that continuing to work would be the best thing for him. Daddy Long Legs was only moderately successful at the box office. His next film for Paramount, Funny Face (1957), teamed him with Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson . Despite

4761-588: Was to affect the careers of both artists profoundly. Astaire was always on the lookout for new steps on the circuit and was starting to demonstrate his quest for novelty and perfection. The Astaires broke into Broadway in 1917 with Over the Top , a patriotic revue, and performed for U.S. and Allied troops at this time as well. They followed up with several more shows. Of their work in The Passing Show of 1918 , Heywood Broun wrote: "In an evening in which there

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