Board of Directors
John Sefakis has been President of Dancers Over 40 since 2006, and grown the organization four-fold by expanding the DO40 mission to include panels, socials, casting opportunities and performances as well as opening up the organization to younger members and non-dancers as well (hence the new secondary Logo, Dancers Over 40..and Friends). He has been a member since 1998, when, as Associate Producer on MetroArts/Thirteen, he arranged for the group to be featured in a week-long tribute, hosted by theater and dance critic Clive Barnes.
Trained as a theater director, Sefakis wrote his master’s thesis on Bob Fosse and His Visual Design for the Theater, interviewed Gwen Verdon while in college, and later, during the MetroArts years, had the opportunity to work with her and feature a week about “Fosse” on MetroArts/Thirteen when it previewed in Canada and finally arrived in NYC in 1999.
John began dancing at 3 ½ , and ended up studying in his home town with a Luigi-trained dancer, Jane DeFalco, who still takes Luigi classes when she can (at 80!). She was an accomplished tapper, having assisted June Taylor in the 1960’s. Sefakis moved to NYC in 1975, and because of his excellent hometown dance training, found dance work almost immediately, teaching tap and jazz at Phil Black’s dance studio, where he taught from 1975 – 1989. He also directed and choreographed many regional and stock productions of “Pippin,” “Chicago,” “Dames at Sea” and many plays for the Playwrights Active Cooperative Theater, as well as writing a play that was staged at the York Theater.
Sefakis worked for many years at HBO, The American Lung Association (as Manager of Corporate Promotions and Licensing) and Thirteen/WNET while maintaining his ties to the dance and theater world. He is also very active in the fight against HIV. He has been on the Community Advisory Board of the New York Blood Center for ten years, and is a member of the Global CAB for the HVTN and HPTN (HIV Vaccine & Prevention Trials Networks). He began his volunteer work with Project Achieve in 1993 and participated in Achieve’s Project Explore (HIV Vaccine) study in 1998. A member of the original ACT-UP Housing Committee, he was also a GMHC buddy and team leader and a member of the AIDS Prevention Action League and SEXPANIC!, which was formed to protest the harassment of the gay community by the Giuliani administration.
Loni Ackerman has been a longtime favorite of Broadway theatergoers. She captivated New York audiences in such coveted roles as Eva in Evita and Grizabella in Cats. Other Broadway credits include leading roles in The Magic Show, So Long, 174th Street, No, No, Nanette, and George M!. She was in the original cast of Starting Here, Starting Now and appeared Off-Broadway in Diamonds, The Petrified Prince (both under the direction of Hal Prince), Brownstone and Dames at Sea. Loni performed “Buenos Aires” at DO40’s tribute to Larry Fuller at St. Luke’s Theater in 2016, with “slouchos” Richard Schiffer, Matthew Kilgore, Antyon Lemonte and Buddy Flowers. She is married to TONY-award-winning sound designer Steve Kennedy and has two sons, Jack and George., two beautiful daughters-in law, Mary and Jami, and three awesome grand-daughters, Maggie, Josie and newly arrived Lola!
Leni Anders - Leni thinks she was born with the desire to dance. As a young child she’d dance around the house on her toes, leading her mother to take her to ballet class at the age of eight. Following years of poor training she attended the High School of Performing Arts. After two years she transferred to a local high school, continuing ballet classes after school. Though she graduated eighth in a class of almost 700, she refused to go to college because she had to DANCE.
She is very grateful to have been born in NYC, as she doesn’t think she’d have had the courage to come to New York on her own, as so many DO40 members did. Her first job was in summer stock at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, MA. She had previously only thought of being a ballet dancer, but that summer completely changed her focus. She loved doing musicals.
Her professional career somehow took place in twos - two summers of stock, in Hyannis and Northshore Music Theatre, Beverly MA, with a brief stint in the Radio City Music Hall Corps de Ballet between. Also, there were several shows at the Meadowbrook Dinner Theatre and one at the Paper Mill Playhouse.
There were two Broadway shows, “Do Re Mi” with Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker, and “Carnival” with Jerry Orbach and Anna Maria Alberghetti. Also, two industrials - Chevrolet and Buick. Though some people looked down on industrials she loved doing them. And two television shows The Bell Telephone Hour with Ray Bolger. As “Where’s Charley” was the first show she had seen as a child, she was excited to work with him. She did Jimmy Durante’s act twice, and was thrilled to be on the Ed Sullivan Show with him. After signing the contract, she silently sang to herself “Me on the Ed Sullivan Show” on the way home in the subway.
Having danced professionally for only six years, it became apparent that even though she worked diligently on singing lessons, her singing left much to be desired. It was the deciding factor in making a career change which included twenty plus years as a Director of Training in the cosmetics and jewelry industries; and a dozen years in Development at non-profit organizations.
Leni was very happy to be reunited with dance through DO 40. She enjoyed participating in the Radio City Music Hall Corps de Ballet panel, and is delighted to have attended almost all the panels. Pleased to consistently volunteer she has become a champion ticket taker and proof reader. She feels the DO 40 mission of maintaining Our History, Our Legacy, Our Lives is so important not only to current members, but for generations to come.
Ken Bloom is a New York-based, Grammy Award-winning theatre historian, playwright, director, record producer, and author of American Song: The Complete Musical Theatre Companion and the bestseller, Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest shows of All Time.
He began his theatre career in the mid-'70s at the New Playwrights Theatre of Washington. Along with some friends, Bloom co-founded the ASTA theatre. That company became the basis for New Playwrights. While at ASTA, Bloom joined the Smithsonian Puppet Theater, performing as part of Allan Stevens and Company in Washington and on tour throughout the United States for over two years. At New Playwrights, Bloom co-produced and directed a series of musicals and musical revues written by Tim Grundmann including Sirocco, Bride of Sirocco (which transferred to a commercial run), Nightmare!, Out to Lunch, and Eddie's Catchy Tunes. He also wrote and directed the musical revues Cole Porter Revisited, The Unsung Jerome Kern, and Sweet and Hot: The Songs of Harold Arlen. Bloom also was in charge of the theatre's PR, audience development, and marketing. After leaving New Playwrights, Bloom edited The Washington Season, an arts supplement for The Washington Post. In Washington, he hosted a musical theatre radio show for WAMU-FM, DC's NPR station.
He continued radio work after moving to New York in 1980 as a correspondent for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He was also Broadway correspondent for the CBC. Bloom worked with Ezio Petersen on Musical Theatre Today on WKCR-FM, a weekly program that ran for fifteen years. He also hosted 12 hours a week for Sirius Satellite Radio's musical theatre channel.
Shortly after his move to New York, Bloom, in partnership with Cleveland's Bill Rudman, founded Harbinger Records,[1] an independent label dedicated to the preservation of the music of American popular song, musical theatre, and cabaret. Their first release was Geraldine Fitzgerald’s one-woman show, Streetsongs. Bloom and Rudman's first studio record was Maxine Sullivan Sings the Great Songs of the Cotton Club by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocalist and won the NAIRD award for Best Jazz Vocal of the Year. They continued working with Sullivan on the highly acclaimed Together: The Music of Jule Styne and The Lady's in Love with You: Maxine Sullivan Sings the Music of Burton Lane. Bloom has also produced albums devoted to the talents of Mabel Mercer, Susan Johnson, three CDs with jazz great Barbara Carroll, three jazz CDs with pianist/singer Eric Comstock, Sylvia McNair, opera diva Amy Burton (Opera News Recording of the Month), Lorna Dallas, Eric Michael Gillette, Jamie DeRoy, Stacy Sullivan, Barbara Fasano, Mark Murphy, and others. Harbinger has also released on CD the legendary Walden Records series of recordings as well as recordings by Noël Coward, Charles Strouseand Lee Adams, Richard Rodgers, Jerry Herman, Hugh Martin, Sheldon Harnick, Cy Coleman, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, and Barry Kleinbort. In 2012, Harbinger co-produced Barry Kleinbort's musical 13 Things About Ed Carpolatti at the 59E59 Theater, starring Penny Fuller. In 2016, Bloom and Richard Carlin won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for the Harbinger recording Sissle and Blake Sing Shuffle Along, which Bloom also produced. In 2018, Harbinger Records celebrated its 35th Anniversary.
Bloom is also a noted author. His first book, American Song: The Complete Musical Theatre Companion is a listing of every song written for the American Theatre, which was named Reference Book of the Year by Choice Magazine. Ten years later, a new, updated edition was published. He followed it up with Hollywood Song which contains information on songs from over 7,000 films. His Tin Pan Alley features complete songographies of the top 175 composers and lyricists of American popular song. Bloom also wrote Broadway: An Encyclopedic Guide to the History, People, and Places of Times Square which won a prestigious Source Magazine Award and was named one of the top reference books of the year by the New York Times. An updated and revised edition was published in 1992. In collaboration with Frank Vlastnik, Bloom wrote the bestseller Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time,[2][3] which received the George Freedley Award[4] and Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest Comedies of All Time.[1] Bloom also wrote The American Songbook: The Singers, the Songwriters and the Songs. He also compiled, with Jerry Herman, Jerry Herman: The Lyrics: a Celebration. In 2009, with Elaine Orbach, Bloom wrote Remember How I Love You: Love Letters from an Extraordinary Marriage for Simon and Schuster. In 2010, Bloom wrote Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song and Dance Movies of All Time. With Josh Wellman, Bloom wrote Attending and Enjoying Concerts for Pearson/Prentice Hall.Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes (Oxford University Press) was published ij 2016. With co-author Richard Carlin, Bloom wrote "Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race" (Oxford University Press, 2020). His latest book is The Complete Lyrics of Sheldon Harnick. for SUNY New York Press. For more than a decade, Bloom was editor of Marquee, the journal of the Theatre Historical Society, during which time he sat on the board of that organization.
In 2010, Bloom was the Executive Producer of the three-part PBS series, Michael Feinstein's American Songbook. He also developed an extensive website for the series, which can be found at: www.michaelfeinsteinsamericansongbook.com. Also in 2010, an updated edition of Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time was released.
Bloom consulted with Decca Broadway on their musical theatre catalog for nearly ten years. For such organizations as the Library of Congress and the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at Lincoln Center, Bloom cataloged the papers of such theatrical greats as Burton Lane, Florence Klotz, Peter Stone, and Jerry Herman.
With Barry Kleinbort, Bloom wrote the off-Broadway musical revue A Brief History of White Music which ran for a year at the Village Gate Uptown. Bloom and Kleinbort directed benefits for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The New York City Opera, and Toys "R" Us featuring such stars as Patti LuPone, Carol Burnett, Marc Antony,[5] Paul Anka, Wynonna Judd, Donna Murphy, Jerry Orbach, and Duncan Sheik.
In 2009, Bloom co-wrote with Kleinbort and Christopher Mirambeau a bi-lingual musical revue, Metropolita(i)n. It was produced at the Opera Paniche in Paris, France with a cast of French and American performers. The revue examined Parisian's views of New York City and New Yorker's views of Paris. The show was remounted in November 2010 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in New York City with members of the French cast. Clips from the show can be seen on YouTube at: MetropolitanParisNYC.
Bloom assisted Christophe Mirambeau in presenting a concert version of the previously lost Cole Porter revue, La Revue des Ambassadeurs; Mirambeau discovered Porter's lost songs, and the show reopened the historic Maison de la Mutualite on May 3, 2012, 85 years after its Parisian premiere. The thirty-member Orchestre des Concerts Pasdeloup played new orchestrations by Broadway orchestrator Larry Blank. A forty-member chorus and a cast of Parisians and Americans, including Amy Burton, Lisa Vroman, Jérôme Pradon, and Vincent Heden, performed the material. In 2014, Bloom and Vince Giordano found the original 1928 orchestrations and mounted the show at Town Hall in New York City for a sold-out performance; Amy Burton, Jason Graae, Anita Gillette, Tom Wopat, Catherine Russell, and Ted Louis Levy performed. Two years later, Bloom staged the show at San Francisco's historic Herbst Theatre.
2019 saw the release of the documentary, "Merely Marvelous: The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon, which Bloom co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced with filmmaker Christopher Johnson. The documentary was broadcast on the BBC and has been featured in many film festivals; winning awards from the Burbank International Film Festival[6] winners and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.[7]
As a press agent, Bloom has represented Cirque du Soleil, the Bolshoi Theatre Grigorovich Balley, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Kirov Ballet, George Abbott's Broadway at the Royale Theatre on Broadway, internationally known children's performers Sharon, Lois & Bram, and many others.
Eileen Casey - DO40 Founding Member Eileen Casey arrived in NYC from Boston, MA at 18 to pursue her professional dance career. She studied with all the top teachers in New York at the time, including Luigi and Matt Mattox. Her first job was for a TV commercial dancing with Broadway performers. Shortly thereafter, she booked a summer stock job obtaining her Equity card and she was on her way to a career totaling 16 Broadway shows, as well as TV and Film.
Eileen worked with all the major choreographers and directors of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, such as Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune and Michael Bennett. She traveled extensively, performing with such notables as Mary Martin, Ethel Merman and Fred Astaire, which gave her invaluable experience.
Some of the highlights of her career were working on Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz as a principal dancer, being in a TV special with Fred Astaire and doing a Woody Alen film as a ghost dancer in Everybody Says I Love You. She loved performing in a commercial for Ajax, choreographed by the famous Gwen Verdon.
Eileen’s Broadway credits include Hello, Dolly, West Side Story, Mame, Promises, Promises, Sugar, Seesaw, Pippin, Dancin’ and My One and Only. She also dance in several pre-Broadway shows and a few that opened and closed quickly, like Marilyn and Mata Hari. She loved performing in the annual Milliken Breakfast shows and working with the top Broadway stars and choreographers there.
Eileen attributes her success to her love and discipline for her profession, along with enthusiasm and a drive to… succeed! She consideres herself fortunate to have worked with all these legends of theater and dance.
Bobby Hedglin-Taylor - Bobby has been a member of DO40 for the past 10 years and proud to join the team as the newest board member! Bobby's career combines over 30 years of theater & circus, combining them to bring Dance to a whole new level! For the past 19 years Bobby has been the director of The Espana-STREB Trapeze Academy working with famed choreographer Elizabeth Streb in her Action Lab in Williamsburg. Bobby’s work was featured on and off Broadway in PIPPIN (revival), CHAPLIN and THE FROGS where he trained dancers, Tony award nominees and Tony award winners in such disciplines as tightrope walking, trapeze, aerial acrobatics including Patina Miller, Andrea Martin, Tovah Feldshuh and Rob McClure. Off Broadway his aerial work was featured in Wearing Lorca's Bowtie and Classic Stages A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth, Anthony Heald, Taylor Mac & Christina Ricci. He’s designed aerial acrobatics and special effects for music videos that include artists such as Lena Hall and Erin Hill. He collaborated on aerial numbers and choreography in the Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS annual benefit Broadway Bares. He was the Cirque choreographer for Holland America Cruise line training several casts over many years for the entire fleet.
As an acrobat and dancer Bobby has not only performed around the country in night clubs, circus and variety shows but he’s also one of a select few who have performed twice with the rock band PHISH at Madison Square Garden in numbers designed by Tony award winner David Gallow.
He started his adventure in theater in the early 80’s attending East Stroudsburg University, and won full scholarships to the Stroudsburg Ballet theater, & THE AMERICAN MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC ACADEMY. Post AMDA he appeared in Regional Theater, Summer Stock and National Tours. A few highlights are; A Wonderful Life, La Cage, Cabaret, Big River, 42nd Street, Singing in the Rain, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Guys and Dolls, My One and Only, A Chorus Line and Annie Get Your Gun. A very proud member of Actors Equity Association. As an actor he utilizes his circus skills when performing in musicals and shows and he's worked as an aerial sequence choreographer for over 20 years. Highlights include staging 29 productions of the musical BARNUM where he was also served as a circus trainer, swing and standby for PT Barnum, The Louisiana premier of TARZAN, TARZAN (TOTS National Tour), CARNIVAL, THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE-CIRCUS ON SODOR, MADAGASCAR LIVE! Reality shows- MARRIAGE REF, WIFE SWAP, FASHION EMERGENCY, MATCHED IN MANHATTAN, WHAT NOT TO WEAR, LALA'S COURT LIFE, and MODELS INC.
Most recently Bobby has been working the stand up comedy circuit performing at the Stonewall inn, Broadway Comedy club's queer comedy festival, and Bombfactory comedy. Thanks to the pandemic he added author to his list of talents penning a humorous memorial to his mom entitled #ShitMyMamaSays-a humorous look at life while dealing with dementia (available on Amazon).
Lawrence Leritz began his international dance career working with Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine, Robert Joffrey, Ruth Page, John Neumeier, Tommy Tune and Sir Frederick Ashton, in such companies as Hamburg Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Israel's Bat Dor Dance Company, Paris Opera and as guest artist throughout the world including The Los Angeles Music Center Opera. Broadway: Jerome Robbins revival of Fiddler On The Roof, Fonteyn & Nureyev On Broadway and in The Muny's productions of Can-Can and the world stage premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein's State Fair, starring Ozzie & Harriet Nelson. Off-Broadway he produced & choreographed the hit show Boobs! The Musical. Choreography highlights includes Alone for The Hamburg Ballet, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Motown's film musical The Last Dragon and TV's mime duo Shields & Yarnell. Leritz produced The 50th Anniversary Gala of The American Guild of Musical Artists, featuring over 300 stars of ballet and opera at Lincoln Center's New York State Theater with hosts Beverly Sills and Peter Martins. Lawrence also served for 18 years on the Board Of Governors for AGMA.
Films include Love In Kilnerry (2020), Julie Taymor's Across The Universe, The Adjustment Bureau and Easy Money. TV: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, opened the 2017 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Emmy winning Night Of Too Many Stars on Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live, All My Children and the best selling exercise DVD, Total Stretch with Lawrence Leritz. In 1996, Mr. Leritz was honored for his work by Time Magazine, as their Local Hero for producing the annual television event Day Of Compassion.
Kathy Seng Gurland, like many dancers, came to NYC right after high school and threw herself into classes, auditions and part time jobs. Her ballet teacher from Philadelphia recommended a Jazz teacher named Chuck Kelly and thus began her adventures at Don Farnsworth’s Studios. After passing the mandatory student verbal abuse tests from Chuck in jazz, tap and acrobatics, she remained a dedicated follower and eventually wound up being one of his first teachers and a long term friend. She joined DO40 right after her 40th birthday and has been a loyal member ever since. She joined forces with Ron Stratton in planning two of the holiday parties several years ago and has him to blame for getting roped into the position of treasurer.
Kathy spent most of her dancing career doing dinner theater and summer stock, toured with Cyd Charise and Tony Martin, and then moved into choreographing and directing. She assisted Tony Award winning Director Dennis Rosa on several productions and eventually made it to Off Broadway as an understudy in the musical flop “Surf City.” She landed a few national commercials during those years (Dawn, Uncle Ben’s Rice, etc.) but as we all know, those residuals really don’t pay the rent. Realizing that she was not going to join the ranks of Broadway’s rich and famous, Kathy decided to pursue a college degree while still dabbling in “the biz.” After seven years of part time study, while working multiple jobs and taking ballroom classes to maintain her sanity, she received her BA from NYU just prior to her 40th birthday.
Swearing to never return to school again, Kathy worked for five years in social services enduring the 9-5 schedule while simultaneously building a relationship with her former professor that happily ended with an elopement in the Virgin Islands.
Eight years ago Kathy went back on her promise and returned to NYU (this time for free thanks to the hubby) to pursue a masters degree in Social Work. She graduated in 2000, passed the state licensing exam and immediately began working in her two chosen fields – hospice and psychotherapy. Kathy still feels to this day that it is a true honor and privilege to provide end of life services to individuals throughout NYC and also still thoroughly enjoys being a “shrink” to her ongoing private clients.
After over 30 years living in the “only borough”, Kathy and her husband made the move over the bridge to Brooklyn last year and now reside in DUMBO. After going through withdrawal and adjusting to the peace and quiet, they are now confirmed Brooklynites. (The view of your City is marvelous from here and so are the sunsets.) Kathy and Bob also own a home on the island of Culebra, PR and Kathy is considering holding a DO40 membership meeting there in 2007 for those of you who like the beach.
Sasha Spielvogel - Sasha Spielvogel’s Labyrinth Dance Theater is a classically trained modern dance company founded in 1979. With a repertory that ranges from the comedic to the sensual, to choreography embodying social justice, Sasha believes that dance has the power to help repair the world. Critics from the New York Times to Attitude Magazine described Ms. Spielvogel’s work as, “Totally mesmerizing,” “Striking!” “A powerful achievement, performed superbly” and “Raises the art form to where it should always be: Towering!”Ms. Spielvogel’s dance film, Dark Angel, was screened in Manhattan and the LOIKKA Dance Film Festival, Helsinki. The Promise of Rest, created to honor all those bullied for their sexual orientation, was performed at Jacob’s Pillow for ADG. Beginning in 1998, Sasha has had six pieces in Dancers Over 40 programs: Les Espaces du Sommeil, Passing, Auditioning for the Celestial Follies, Entre Nosotros, Not Even If I Try; Come Back Once More So I Can Say Goodbye, co-produced by DO40 in 2015, is an evening-length work about gay life in NYC and the advent of AIDS from 1965-1995 which received standing ovations at the Alvin Ailey Theater. The company toured Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia with Backstreet this summer. NOOR, a dance theater work based on the life of Noor Inayat Khan, a Sufi pacifist who became an allied spy during World War II, was performed in November by Felicia Norton at St. Mark's Church to a sold-out house. Ms. Spielvogel is grateful for her continuing relationship with D040 in this crazy business of show business.
Sharon Wendrow - Ms. Wendrow, a current Board Member, and Member of Dancers Over 40, was a member of Radio City Music Hall’s Corps de Ballet in the 1960’s. Also in the 60’s, she did background work in several classic movies including; “Splendor in the Grass” that starred Natalie Wood, and “The Young Savages” that starred Burt Lancaster. She taught dance for over 45 years, and was the owner and director of her own dance studio, “Ballet to Broadway”, where she taught, produced and created all of the “Ballet to Broadway Shows” for 20 years, from 1980-2000. In 2000, she joined the Hannah Kroner School of Dance. There she began and created classes in Musical Theatre and Pilates style stretch. Along with those classes, she currently teaches; ballet, advanced and adult; tap, teen and adult; and adult jazz. Each year she choreographs several dances for the Kroner Shows. In the 1970’s and 1980’s she choreographed “Sweet Charity”, “Gypsy” and “Guys and Dolls” for Dinner and Community Theatres. She has also developed shows and demonstrations for clubs, churches, department stores, Temples and various organizations.
In the 1990’s she was featured in her local newspaper for owning and running two area businesses. She was highlighted for owning, teaching and directing her dance studio, “Ballet to Broadway”. She also owned and ran a local Antique Store, travelling to antique doll and toy shows, including the fantastic Atlantic City and fabulous Triple Pier shows in NYC, which encompassed all forms of antique and specialty categories. She managed both of those businesses while being a wife, caregiver, home maker, mother of two children, and mom to several cats and dogs throughout the last few decades - a true tour de force!
Advisory Board
Graciela Daniele danced in the original FOLLIES with first DO40 President Chris Nelson, and performed in many memorable musicals, including the original CHICAGO for Bob Fosse. Her Broadway director/ choreographer credits include MARIE CHRISTINE, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN revival AND DANGEROUS GAME. She choreographed THE GOODBYE GIRL, THE RINK with Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera and the NYSF production of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE on Broadway, in Los Angeles and London. She was awarded the 1996 and 1997 FOSSE Award as well as the George, “Mr. Abbott,” Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director/ Choreographer in 1998.
Larry Fuller - Larry Fuller's Broadway choreographic works included Evita (he also did the original London production), Sweeney Todd, On the Twentieth Century, Merrily We Roll Along, A Doll’s Life and the American premiere of Kurt Weill's Silverlake for the New York City Opera.
Mr. Fuller both directed and choreographed the off-Broadway musical Love, which won two Outer Critics Awards for Best Book and Best Musical Score, and a summer spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, Gotta Get Away.
His non-musical directorial credits include two New York off-Broadway productions by Canadian playwright Maxim Mazumdar, Oscar Remembered, at the Provincetown Playhouse and Invitation to the Dance at American Theater of Actors.
In Europe he directed and choreographed the first European productions of Candide, Girl Crazy and On the Town, along with four German productions of West Side Story. He worked on the films A Little Night Music, starring Elizabeth Taylor, and The Boarding School, starring Natassja Kinski. At the Theater An Der Wein in Vienna, he created the highly successful dance evening Jazz and the Dancing Americans, and for the London Festival ballet a classical piece entitled Humors of Man. Also in London, he directed and choreographed the West End hits Marilyn, the Musical and Time.
For Evita, Mr. Fuller received a TONY award nomination for Outstanding Choreography, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Distinguished Choreography and two New York Critics Circle Awards for his work on Sweeney Todd and Evita and the New York Television Academy Award for choreographing the Our American Musical Heritage series on WCBS-TV.
He has twice staged and choreographed both the TONY and EMMY awards, which were internationally telecast. Mr. Fuller’s credits also include the musical staging the first national tour of the Jekyll and Hyde, directing and choreographing three national tours of Evita, the world premiere of JFK -A Musical Drama and On Your Toes with the Stuttgart ballet.
AND he also had time to choreograph and stage numbers for Dancers over 40’s DO40 CARES: Song and Dance Concerts at the Ailey Citigroup Theater/Joan Weill Center for Dance from 2010-2013. (Pictured with Patti Lupone.
Carol Lawrence - The stars were aligned for the Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS 50th Anniversary salute to the original cast of West Side Story, and many, many of our members were onstage talking their bows with our newest Advisory Board Member and original Maria, Carol Lawrence. When DO40 Board Member George Marcy suggested Carol, the board over-whelmingly agreed! We can’t find a better supporter of our members than Carol. She has worked with dozens, if not more, DO40 members over the course of her spectacular career.
Carol’s Broadway credits are numerous, but some of the highlights are New Faces of 1952, Subways are for Sleeping in 1961, and stepping in to Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1995. She’s appeared in hundreds of variety show specials and television series, from Sex in the City to Rawhide! How diverse is that! DO40 welcomes her to our community, and to New York City, where she currently is taking up residence. The DO40 welcome wagon is coming soon, Carol! Get ready!
Jerry Mitchell - Award-winning director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell who was born in Paw Paw, Michigan, used to be a choir boy. His career in choreography started when he was hired as associate choreographer by legendary stage director Michael Bennet for the musical Scandal. He was also associate choreographer to Jerome Robbins on Jerome Robbins' Broadway.
He performed as a dancer on Broadway shows The Will Rogers Follies, Brigadoon and On Your Toes. In 1979, he was cast member for the national tour of the critical hit and Tony Award winning play A Chorus Line. Two years after, he became sole chorographer for the You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown revival. In 2001, his choreography on The Full Monty earned him Tony, Drama Desk and Astaire Award nominations. His choreography on Hairspray also received the same nominations plus one more nomination from the Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as awards for his Tony-winning Kinky Boots.
In 2005, he took home a Tony, a Drama Desk and an Outer Circle Award for his outstanding choreography on La Cage aux Folles. He was also Drama Desk nominated for his choreography and directorial job on the musical Legally Blonde. Among his body of works are the choreography on the revival of Gypsy, The Rocky Horror Show, Jekyll and Hyde and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to name a few.
Lori Tan Chinn
Lori celebrates her 53rd year as a performer. She grew up in Seattle, WA, when it was a log town with no promise of a future for her dreams of becoming a dancer, let alone any future for a hopeful ABC (American-Born Chinese), except to be match-married to an indifferent foreign-born Chinese “prince,” with a future of babies and waiting on a mother-in-law!
There was no money to afford dance classes, so she spent weekends at the neighborhood public library, where she found books explaining all the various dance positions. With no dance experience, she had the pluck to win acceptance into the summer dance program at the University of Washington, run by Drama Dept. head, Ms. Ruthanna Boris, dancer and choreographer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. A summer later, she was accepted into Canada’s Banff School of Performing Arts, and saved enough money for a one-way ticket to NYC. Shortly after arriving, she went to an audition requiring Asian performers: “Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen,” the musical version of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, “The Teahouse of the August Moon.” She was cast in the chorus, then plucked out of that chorus and cast as the female comic lead. The transition from dancer to actor led way to subsequent performances in films, including: “Mickey Blue Eyes,” “She-Devil,” “What About Bob?” and television appearances on “Roseanne,” “South Pacific,” and “Orange is the New Black.”
Named “The Definitive Bloody Mary” after winning the role over actresses from New York to Los Angeles, Lori appeared in the ABC television version of “South Pacific” starring Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr. She went on to portray this complex Tonkinese Chinese character at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage, which garnered her the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical.
After 49 years she was thrilled to appear alongside cast mates Georgia Engel, Donna McKechnie, André De Shields and Lillias White in the last musical project by Marvin Hamlisch and directed by Advisory Board Member Jerry Mitchell called “Half Time,” based on a documentary about a group of senior citizens who audition for the half time show of a NJ basketball team. She is currently co-starring with Awkwafina in Nora from Queens on Comedy Central and still as busy as ever!
Caterina Valente - DO40 Advisory Board member Caterina Valente was born into an Italian circus family. Her mother was a clown and her father was an accordion player. As a child she worked in the circus as well. She performed in Europe as a singer for several years, but her career as an internationally known vocalist began in 1953 and She was soon signed to Polydor and made her recording debut for the label the same year. Her first big hits came soon after that, charted in Europe and eventually England and the U.S. "Malagueña" was her first big hit, followed by "Andalucia," which, when re-released in an English version as "The Breeze and I," became a Top Ten hit in both the U.K. and the U.S. By this time, Caterina had become a truly multilingual artist, performing her cabaret act and issuing recordings in six languages: French, German, Italian, English, Spanish, and Swedish. During the '50s and '60s she notched hits in the charts of many countries, including Italy ("Till," "Personalita," "Nessuno al Mondo"), Germany ("Ganza Paris Träumt von der Liebe," "Wo Meine Sonne Scheint," "Steig in das Traumboot der Liebe"), and France ("Bimbombey," "39 Fievere," "Saitôn-Jamais"). Her version of "La Golondrina" appeared on one of the first charity albums, 1963's All Star Festival. The proceeds from that album went to aid refugees. In the U.S., her stardom was assured when she made 12 appearances on the Perry Como Show in the 1960’s. She continued recording into the mid-'80s, issuing Caterina ’86, a recording made with the Count Basie Orchestra.
Marge Champion (In Memoriam) was one half of the "Gower and Marge Champion" dance team. She began dancing as a child under the instruction of her father, Ernest Belcher, who was a noted Hollywood ballet coach. As a teen, she served as the model for the heroine of Disney's feature-length cartoon SNOW WHITE and for the Blue Fairy in PINOCCHIO, and appeared in westerns under the name "Marjorie Bell." She teamed up with actor/choreographer Gower Champion in 1945; they were married in 1947. They went on to appear together in a string of highly popular musical films in the '50s, becoming the screen's most appealing dance team since Astaire and Rogers. After the team quit making films, she went on to be a character actress in a number of movies; also, she created dances for films (The Day of the Locusts, etc.), the stage (Stepping Out, Grover's Corners), and TV. Marge Champion’s work as the choreographer for the TV special QUEEN OF THE STARDUST BALLROOM earned her an Emmy in 1975. 
Valerie Harper (In Memoriam) was born in Suffern, NY and attended Hunter College and the New School for Social Research, both in Manhattan. Her stage career began at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, not as a Rockette but dancing in the now-discontinued Corps de Ballet. While earning her living by performing in such Broadway musicals as "Li'l Abner," "Destry Rides Again" with Andy Griffith, "Take Me Along" with Jackie Gleason, "Wildcat" with Lucille Ball and "Subways Are For Sleeping" with Orson Bean and Carol Lawrence, Valerie studied acting. Her teachers included John Cassavetes, Mary Tarcai and William Hickey. She was privileged to train with and work for Viola Spolin, the creator of Theater Games and author of "Improvisation for the Theatre." Viola's son, director Paul Sills who created and directed the famed Second City, invited Valerie to join his company of players. As time went on she performed in nightclubs (Cellar Door, Village Gate), summer stock (University of Connecticut), regional theatre (Seattle Repertory Company) and improvised and wrote radio commercials. Valerie's later Broadway credits include Carl Reiner's "Something Different," the Tony award-winning "Paul Sills' Story Theater," Sills' production of "Ovid's Metamorphoses" and in the new millennium, Charles Busch's "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife." She counts many DO40 members as her close friends from this special time in her life.
Valerie achieved fame and four Emmy Awards playing Rhoda Morgenstern on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the spin-off series "Rhoda." During her nine years as the character "Rhoda", she was the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, Harvard University Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award, Hollywood Women's Press Club "Golden Apple" Award, and a Photoplay Gold Medal Award. In 2000 Valerie reprised the role of Rhoda Morgenstern (along with Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards) in the ABC television movie "Mary and Rhoda," which attracted nearly 18 million viewers. In 1987 she was seen as "Valerie Hogan" in the then-titled NBC series "Valerie" (later "The Hogan Family") and also starred in the 1990 CBS series "City" and in the 1994 CBS series "The Office."
Throughout her career, Valerie has continued to work in the theatre. She performed with various companies of Second City and Story Theatre in many venues all over the country and in Canada. In 1970 she was a member of the original stage production of "Story Theater" in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum and opened with the show in New York when it moved to Broadway. In 2001 Valerie was back on Broadway starring in Charles Busch's hilarious comedy "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife". She played "the Wife" (Marjorie Taub) for a year on Broadway and then for another year in the National Tour. DO40 welcomes her back to her roots – and her friends!
Chita Rivera (in Memoriam), winner of two Tony Awards (Kiss of the Spider Woman; The Rink) and seven additional Tony nominations told DO40 board member and former dance partner George Marcy that she was thrilled to be added to our roster. She recently starred on Broadway in CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCER’S LIFE, a musical celebrating her life and career as one of America’s most beloved stage performers. She appeared in the revival of the musical Nine with Antonio Banderas. In December, 2002 she received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, DC. Ms. Rivera created the role of Velma Kelly in the original Broadway production of Chicago opposite Gwen Verdon (1975) and appears in the film version.