Michael Smuin

Michael Smuin with Dancers

by Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
with contributions by dance critic Rachel Howard

Choreographer Michael Smuin, was a major force in the San Francisco dance world and one of the region's most prominent and audacious showmen.

Known for the vibrant, expressive and brassy work he created for his own company, for various regional companies, on Broadway and in Hollywood, Smuin was co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet from 1973 to 1985. He danced with that company from 1953 to 1961 and later with the American Ballet Theatre, where he was both a principal dancer and choreographer.

Smuin won a Tony Award on Broadway in 1988 for his choreography of "Anything Goes" and was nominated for a Tony in 1981 for "Sophisticated Ladies." He received an Emmy Award in 1984 for "Great Performances: Dance in America." He choreographed pieces for Dance Theatre of Harlem, Milwaukee Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Washington Ballet. His film choreography credits include "Rumble Fish," "The Cotton Club" and "So I Married an Axe Murderer."

Smuin's range was voluminous, with both successes and failure writ on a large and often overtly showy scale. For his eponymous Smuin Ballet, he set dances to music by Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin, the Beatles, Haydn and Brahms.

"Michael Smuin sends people out of the theater humming tunes and filled with images of pretty young women and handsome young men spinning and leaping up a storm," Jennifer Dunning wrote in the New York Times last year. The choreographer's buoyant annual "Christmas Ballet" is a particular audience favorite in the Bay Area.

Smuin's 1977 production of "Romeo and Juliet" for San Francisco Ballet helped raise the company's national and international profile. The production aired on PBS' "Dance in America" the following year. "He made San Francisco Ballet a company to take seriously," said dance critic Allan Ulrich, who covered Smuin's work for the San Francisco Examiner and later for The Chronicle.

"Michael was an American who danced and worked in an expressly American idiom," said Dennis Nahat, artistic and executive director of Ballet San Jose and a colleague with Smuin at American Ballet Theatre. "He was always trying to do different things or copy someone else and do it better. He had a great sense of humor and a never-say-die attitude. Nothing ever stopped him or slowed him down."

After dancing with San Francisco Ballet for eight years, Smuin married a fellow company member, Paula Tracy. The couple moved to New York in 1961. Smuin was cast in a Broadway musical, "Little Me," directed by Bob Fosse, in 1962. Smuin and Tracy mounted a night-club dance act, which they toured around the country and overseas. First Smuin and then Tracy joined American Ballet Theatre in 1965. Smuin choreographed "Pulcinella Variations," "The Catherine Wheel" and other pieces for ABT before the couple returned to San Francisco. They divorced in 2000.

Smuin spent 12 years as a choreographer and co-director of the San Francisco Ballet, a period that coincided with his work on "Sophisticated Ladies" on Broadway and various film projects.

"He absolutely loved what he did," said Amy Seiwert, a Smuin Ballet dancer for the past eight years. "It's been a very intense morning, but I think it's very beautiful that we were all there with him at the end." Seiwert recalled something Smuin said to her once and that she often repeated back to him. " 'If I only did the things I was supposed to do,' " Smuin told her, " 'I would never do anything.' "

1938 - 2007

Career highlights
of dancer and choreographer Michael Smuin

Dance

-- Principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, 1969-1973

-- Co-artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, 1973-1985

-- Resident choreographer of American Ballet Theatre, 1992

-- Founder and artistic director of Smuin Ballet since 1994

-- Also: Choreographer for dance companies including Dance Theatre of Harlem, Washington Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet

Theater

-- Nominated for Tony Award for choreography and best direction of a musical for "Sophisticated Ladies" in 1981

-- Also: Choreographed the tango in 1992 revival of "Private Lives," choreographed the 1990 musical "Shogun."

TV and Movies

-- Emmy Award winner for choreography for S.F. Ballet's "A Song for Dead Warriors" on "Great Performances: Dance in America" in 1984.

-- Also: Choreographer for movies including "A Walk in the Clouds" (1995), "The Fantasticks" (1994), "So I Married an Axe Murderer" (1993), "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), "The Cotton Club" (1984)