Michael Kidd - Gymnastics as Dance
by Claire J Rottenberg
Although Michael Kidd was
probably best known for his choreography of the
film musical "Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers,"
he had a very successful career as a Broadway
choreographer both before and after the film.
However, it was the gymnastic character of the
dances in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" that
influenced future movie choreograpy.
Kidd, born Milton Greenwald, grew up in a non-show
business family, and he did not develop an interest
in dance until high school. At that time, he began to
study modern dance while also pursuing an academic
interest in engineering. In 1937, he left college to
study dance full-time at the School of American
Ballet. Two years later, Kidd appeared on Broadway,
dancing in a one-act ballet called "Filling Station."
That year, he also performed on Broadway in "The
Ballet Caravan."
Kidd appeared on Broadway as a dancer several times
until 1947 when he finally got his break as a choreographer for the
Broadway musical "Finian's
Rainbow." This first effort was an immediate
success and earned for Kidd his first of five Tony
awards for Best Choreography. From 1948 until
1953, Kidd was the choreographer for five more
Broadway musicals and he won two more Tony awards
("Guys and Dolls," 1951 and "Can-Can,"
1954).
After his success on Broadway, Kidd was hired as
choreographer for his third
film,
"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." His first film
choreography job was in 1937 for "Another Dawn"
but he was not credited for his work on that film.
His next film project was "Where's Charley?" in
1952. However, it was his creative work on "Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers" that made critics and
audiences praise Kidd's choreography. Most notable
was the long "barn raising" scene that had the
male dancers performing gymnastics combined with
dancing. The choreography of this film created a
new type of dance style that was later seen in the
work of other choreographers, such as Jerome
Robbins. Although Kidd did not receive an Academy
Award for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," he
received an honorary Academy Award in 1996 for his
contributions to film choreography.
Kidd returned to Broadway choreography in 1956 and
won his fourth Tony award for "L'il Abner." He
followed this with a Danny Kaye film, "Merry Andrew,"
in 1958. A year later, Kidd returned to Broadway and
added directing to his choreography career. From 1959
through 1966, Kidd was responsible for the direction
and choreography of four Broadway musicals, plus just
the choreography of two musicals. During that time,
he received three Tony nominations for Best
Choreography and one for Best Direction of a Musical.
He won his fifth and last Tony award for his work as
choreographer on "Destry Rides Again."
In 1969, Kidd returned once again to films, this time
to be the choreographer for the movie version of
"Hello, Dolly!" Once again, he combined gymnastics
with dancing to create exciting and unusual dance
numbers for a film musical. "Hello, Dolly!" was,
however, Kidd's last film.
Kidd went back to Broadway in 1970 to direct and
create the choreography for "The Rothschilds." Three
years later, Kidd worked for the last time as
choreographer on an original Broadway musical,
"Cyrano." After "Cyrano," Kidd was directly involved
with only two more Broadway musicals - in 1980, he
was director and choreographer for a revival of "The
Music Man" and in 1993, he directed the musical
version of "The Goodbye Girl." Kidd died in 2007, at
the age of 92.