Dania Krupska

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Dania Krupska is a Tony Award-nominated dancer and choreographer.

Krupska originally trained for the ballet and began her professional career in the 1930s in such companies as the Philadelphia Ballet [1]. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Agnes de Mille's Oklahoma! (1943), later taking over the role of Dream Laurey (which she also performed on tour). She quickly became one of de Mille's regular assistant choreographers, working on Allegro (1947), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Out of This World (1950), and The Girl in Pink Tights (1954). Krupska also assisted de Mille on the ballet Fall River Legend (1948); de Mille's insistence that Krupska be allowed to dance one performance as Lizzie Borden led to an explosive quarrel with Alicia Alonso, unbeknownst to Krupska herself [2]. Before switching to choreography full-time, Krupska also appeared on Broadway in The King and I and the original Can-Can (1953).

Krupska's best-known work as a choreographer is The Most Happy Fella (1956), for which she received her first Tony nomination. (She also staged the 1959 revival.) None of her other Broadway shows were hits, although she earned another Tony nomination for The Happiest Girl in the World (1961). Krupska also choreographed Shoestring Revue (1955), off-Broadway shows, and the jazz ballet Points on Jazz (staged by American Ballet Theatre in 1961).

Krupska was married to the late musical theatre actor Ted Thurston.

[edit] References

[1] Grace Roberts, The Borzoi Book of Ballets (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), 282.
[2] Paula Durbin, "Alicia Alonso: Habanera Assoluta," A Woman's Gaze: Essays on Latin American Artists, ed. Marjorie Agosin (Fredonia, NY: White Pine Press, 1998), 251-52.