February 18
Born Today:
John Travolta
Princess Diana knew who to dance with at the ball - John Travolta (1954-), who by the 1980s had been in two highly successful dance movie musicals - the gritty Saturday Night Fever (1977) and the much-beloved Grease (1978). The movie Staying Alive (1983) was not the strongest follow-up, but it featured dancer Finola Hughes (1959-) and showed the Tony Manero character succeeding on Broadway.
Also Born Today: Russian dancer/choreographer Dmitri Briantzev (1947-), who enlivened the Stanislavsky Ballet repertory with classical ballet variations and pas de deux (dance for two) upon his appointment as chief choreographer in 1985. He began directing the St. Petersburg Chamber Ballet starting in 1994.