Onna White

From ArticleWorld

Onna White, the celebrated Canadian choreographer and dancer was born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada, on March 24th, 1922. She was a sickly child, and, according to Ms. White, some health-enhancing exercises that a doctor prescribed for her led her by chance to the basic movements of dancing. She started taking dance lessons at the age of 12 and later studied in San Francisco. In due course, her studies took her to the famed San Francisco Ballet Co.

Performances

Onna White found a quarter century of work in the male-dominated world of Broadway choreography. She was a classically trained ballerina, and began her Broadway career, in 1947 as a performer, dancing a dance choreographed by Michael Kidd. She assisted Kidd on two chorus works, Silk Stocking and Guys and Dolls. Her relationship with Kidd would be the most important one of her career. Kidd took the young Onna White under his wing early on and hired her as his assistant on the London debut of his performances, Finian’s Rainbow and Guys and Dolls. Then, in 1955, she was chosen to recreate Kidd's work in a Broadway revival of Finian’s Rainbow. In 1956, she choreographed her first Broadway show, Carmen Jones.

Nominations and awards

Ms. White received eight Tony award nominations for such stellar performances as – The Music Man, Irma La Douce, Bye, Bye Birdie, Mame and a score of others. However, she never won the award.

Her films include The Music Man (1962), Bye, Bye Birdie (1963), 1776 (1972), The Great Waltz (1972), Mame (1974) and Oliver for which Miss White received a special Academy Award for her choreography.

Ms. White married Larry Douglas in 1948. They divorced in 1959.She died on April 8, 2005 of natural causes. She was 83.