June 10
Born Today:
Judy Garland
Legendary singer Judy Garland (1922-1969) is better known for her pipes and for starring in one of the early color musicals The Wizard of Oz (1939), but she was also an accomplished dancer. She showed an early interest in dance and joined her siblings, The Gumm Sisters, later called The Garland Sisters, in their act at the age of two. Garland starred in a number of movie musicals in the 1940s including Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and Easter Parade (1948), but her performance in Summer Stock (1950) is one of her best. She holds her own with co-star Gene Kelly (1912-1996) and sizzles in the number Get Happy, complete with a lively dancing chorus of men, choreographed by Nick Castle (1910-1968).
Also Born Today: Ballerina Svetlana Zakharova (1979-) trained at the Vaganova School in St. Petersburg, and began dancing with the Maryinsky Ballet in 1996 and the Bolshoi in 2003 and she was featured in the documentary Ballerina (2006).
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Ballet Premiere: Serenade in 1934