May 8
Born Today:
Raoul Trujillo
Dancer Raoul Trujillo (1955-) began studying dance in college and in 1978 decided to pursue a career in dance. He performed with postmodern choreographer Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) from 1980-1987 and left the company to co-found the American Indian Dance Theatre that same year. The company promoted Native American dance, songs, and culture and was in operation circa 2004. Trujillo began appearing in movies in 1991 and hosted the Dancing multi-part series in 1993. Since that time, Trujillo has continued to appear in movies including The New World (2005) and Apocalypto (2006) and in TV series including Trueblood, Jamestown, and Mayans M.C.
Also Born Today: Ballet dancer Felix Blaska (1941-) performed with Roland Petit (1924-2011) in the 1960s and began choreographing the same decade. In 1978 he formed a company called Crowsnest with Martha Clarke (1944-) and collaborated with Pilobolus. Dancer/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett (1956-) is best known for choreographing the movie Footloose (1984) and the Broadway show Swing! (2000), however, she also replaced ailing choreographer Michael Bennett (1943-1987) for the musical Chess (1988).
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Dance Premiere: Seraphic Dialogue in 1955, Dances at a Gathering in 1969
Broadway Premiere: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962