June 11
Born Today:
Carol Paumgarten
Carol Paumgarten (1944-2020) founded the Steps on Broadway dance studios with Patrice Soriero Stambovsky, a jazz choreographer, in 1979 to train dancers of all levels in ballet, modern, contemporary dance, hip hop, tap, and world dance forms. Dancers can take class with world-renowned teachers and beginning dancers can rub elbows with professional dancers in the complex of 11 studios. Although she wasn’t a dancer, Paumgarten loved sports and figure skating and fell in love with dance after taking a class at the Ailey School. Steps on Broadway is a fixture in the New York dance scene and dancers can either take drop-in classes or virtual classes.
Also Born Today: Choreographer and director Tony Charmoli (1921-2020) danced and worked on several shows on Broadway, including Woman of the Year (1981), and he is best known for his TV work, including the 1977 version of The Nutcracker, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948-), and the show Star Search in the 1980s. Dancer Gerd Andersson (1932-) performed with the Royal Swedish Ballet in the 1950s and appeared in several films directed by Ingmar Bergman. Modern dancer Betty Jones (1926-2020) is best known for performing with José Limón from 1947-1970 and for creating the role of Desdemona in The Moor’s Pavane (1949). She also taught at American Dance Festival for many decades. Contemporary choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker (1960-) began studying dance as a senior in high school and she created Rosas danst Rosas (1983), which was filmed by Peter Greenaway a decade later.
------
Movie:The Unsinkable Molly Brown released in 1964