Miranda Garrison

Miranda Garrison (born 1950) is an American actress, dancer, and choreographer, best known for her film choreography.

Career

Garrison worked as the assistant choreographer in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze; she also acted the part of Vivian Pressman.[1] For the 1988 film Salsa, she appeared in the role of Luna, the owner of a Los Angeles salsa club. In this movie, she is able to dance many steps from her own choreography.[2] In the 1990 film The Forbidden Dance about the Lambada, she was again an actress-dancer, playing the role of Mickey.[3] In 1980 she was a dancer in the film Xanadu, starring the singer Olivia Newton-John.[4] Garrison has been a frequent collaborator with choreographer Kenny Ortega.[5]

In 1997 Garrison was the choreographer for the film Selena, about the late Tejano singer.[6] She was also the choreographer for the film The Skeleton Key, released in 2005.[7] An on-line 'Filmography' for Miranda Garrison lists 48 entries for film (34) and tv (14), twelve for actor and/or dancer 1979-2005, and thirty-six in choreography 1987-2009.[8]

In 2001, she directed the Golden Eagle awards ceremony.[9] In 2007 and 2008, Garrison was a judge in the British reality TV competition, Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life.[10]

Quotes

About the criteria she used in choosing the dancers for a film:

"The most important things to me were heart, individual dance styles, great personal expression, joy of spirit, and the love of dance.[11]

Garrison spoke on video about her core experience of dancing:

"I mean really, dance in its inception was around a campfire, wasn't it? It was praying, wasn't it? Didn't everybody in a community, in a culture, dance around the campfire-in its most primitive form? I've never really lost touch with that. And, yeah. We go out, we make money with it, we tweak it, we do all that with it. But essentially, the essential, the essence, essence, essence... it's about self-expression, about one's self, to one's community, to one's world, and ultimately to God, I think, or Goddess, what ever your concept is on that, the Supreme Being. So, within that, the essence of dance is really powerful. And you can have that with the guy off the street as you can with Baryshnikov."[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Dirty Dancing, at IMDB. Acc'd 2017-7-20.
  2. ↑ Salsa, at IMDb. Acc'd 2017-7-20
  3. ↑ The Forbidden Dance, at IMDb. Acc'd 2017-7-20.
  4. ↑ Xanadu, at IMDb. Acc'd 2017-7-20.
  5. ↑ Interview with Mick Chang, at Salsa Power, June 8, 2001.
  6. ↑ Salena, at IMDb. Acc'd 2017-7-20.
  7. ↑ The Skeleton Key, at IMDb, Acc'd 2017-7-20.
  8. ↑ "Miranda Garrison: Filmography, at Hollywood.com.
  9. ↑ Interview with Mick Chang, at Salsa Power, June 8, 2001.
  10. ↑ Dirty Dancing: The Time of your Life, on IMDb, Acc'd 2017-7-20.
  11. ↑ Interview with Mick Chang, at Salsa Power, June 8, 2001.
  12. ↑ "On the Essence of Dance", video at Move TV. Acc'd 2017-7-20.

References


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