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Michael Kidd (August 12, 1915 – December 23, 2007) was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, who was strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot. He was probably best known for his athletic dance numbers in ''Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'', a 1954 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical, and for choreographing Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the "Girl Hunt Ballet" and "Dancing in the Dark" numbers in the 1953 musical film ''The Band Wagon''. Film critic Stephanie Zacharek called the barn-raising sequence in ''Seven Brides'' "one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen". He was the first choreographer to win five Tony Awards,〔 and was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1996 for advancing dance in film. ==Early life and dance career== Kidd was born Milton Greenwald in New York City on the Lower East Side, the son of Abraham Greenwald, a barber, and his wife Lillian, who were refugees from Czarist Russia. He moved to Brooklyn with his family and attended New Utrecht High School. He became interested in dance after attending a modern dance performance, and went on to study under Blanche Evan, a dancer and choreographer. He studied chemical engineering at the City College of New York, in 1936 and 1937, but left after being granted a scholarship to the School of American Ballet. He toured the country as a member of the corps de ballet of Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan, and performed in roles that included the lead in ''Billy the Kid'', choreographed by Eugene Loring, which featured an orchestral arrangement by Aaron Copland.〔 He adopted the name "Michael Kidd" in 1942. At the time he was performing with Ballet Caravan and all the dancers were urged to adopt "American" names. He chose Kidd because it was short, easy to remember, and evocative of the pirate, Captain Kidd. In 1941, Kidd became a soloist and assistant to Loring in his Dance Players. He moved on to become a soloist for Ballet Theater, later known as the American Ballet Theater. His performances there included ''Fancy Free'' (1944) choreographed by Jerome Robbins and with music by Leonard Bernstein, in which he played one of the three sailors. While at the ABT, he created his own ballet, ''On Stage!'' (1945). Although the play and his performance were well received, and the'' New York Times'' observed that Kidd was "hailed as one of the great hopes of postwar American ballet," he left Loring's company for Broadway in 1947 and never again worked in ballet.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Michael Kidd」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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