Paying It Forward – An Interview With the Incomparable Choreographer/Director Anita Mann

Her journey from growing up in Detroit to being honored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as one of America’s top five contemporary choreographers was paved with chance encounters and mentors recognizing her talents and trusting Anita Mann to create exciting results. And how she fulfilled their trust!  Today, Mann is an American dancer, choreographer, actress, producer and beloved philanthropist to the Arts. She is the recipient of five Emmy Awards and she has received honors from every aspect of the industry.

“Mann began her career as one of the David Winters’ dancers on TV shows such as Shindig!, The T.A.M.I. Show and Monte Carlo: C’est La Rose, a Grace Kelly documentary special. She has danced with and choreographed for Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Michael Jackson, Davy Jones and countless other stars, while maintaining a four-decade relationship with all the major networks.” Anita Mann Productions website.

Mann’s resumé includes more television shows that she choreographed then this article has room to list, but a few are: “The Cher Show”, “The Jacksons”, “The Academy Awards”, the “Golden Globe Award”, “Academy of Country Music Awards, and so many more. Mann is the producer of the long-running Las Vegas hit show Fantasy at the Luxor Las Vegas.

As a way of giving back to her dance community, Mann developed the first ever Dance Hall of Fame making its debut on December 3, 2025, at the Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center. The first inductees include : Alvin Ailey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, Misty Copeland, Bob Fosse, Martha Graham, Gene Kelly, Kenny Ortega, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp.

LA Dance Chronicle had the privilege and pleasure of interviewing Anita Mann to learn more about her life, career, and her passions.

Born Anita Kleinman in Detroit, Michigan, Mann related how music was everywhere around her. Mann’s Godfather was the first bass player in Count Basie’s Band and he would sometimes take her to his rehearsals. She thought of herself as just a little girl who had music all around her, putting bottle caps on the bottom of her shoes to walk down the street making noise.

“Detroit was in my blood from the time I was born,” Mann said. “We had big band music all around me.”

Her father, who was an artist and worked in construction, took a job in St. Louis, Missouri and moved his family there.  Mann said that she received excellent training at a very young age in St. Louis and soon got into the St. Louis  Muny Ballet, the Opera House, and also did summer stock theater. This was all before her family moved to Los Angeles when she was only 9 years old. There she studied with great jazz, ballet teachers like Pat Rico at the Al Gilbert Dance studio on La Cienega Blvd.

“In Los Angeles, I went to Fairfax High School,” Mann recalled. “I was 13, 14 or 15 when I got lucky to get into the film “Bye Bye Birdie” (1963). When applying for a work permit her last name was changed to Mann by the woman filing out the forms.

One day while walking home from Fairfax High School, 17 year old Anita came upon a line of dancers in the parking lot of CBS. Wanting to know what they were doing, she walked into the parking lot and asked, ‘What are you guys doing?’  Turns out they were in line for an audition. Because she was still wearing her dance clothes underneath her school clothes, Mann got into the audition line not knowing what the audition was even for.

That audition was run by Black dancer and choreographer Lon Fontaine for a NAACP closed circuit television show starring Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor along with numerous other very famous Hollywood stars.

“My training was very soulful, very strong jazz with a lot of hinges – very Detroit soulful. So I grew up with that style in my body,” she said. As she learned the dance, Mann thought to herself, ‘This routine was made for me.’ When all the cuts had been made, she found herself being cast in the show, and when the director asked if everyone was at least 18 years old, Mann yelled out, “Right!”  She was actually 17 and suddenly found herself working with some of the best dancers in the commercial industry. She remembers that experience very fondly because everyone mentored her and treated her so well.

One of the dancers on that show was Robert (Bobby) Thompson who mounted all of Jerome Robbins’ “West Side Story”.  Thompson was the choreographer and Greek-American actor dancer Gus Trikonis was the director. It was Thompson who later suggested that Mann audition for the role of Anybody’s for the North American tour of “West Side Story”.  She did and she got the part.

“Because of that job I got to meet all these incredible dancers and to dance the original choreography of Jerome Robbins and Bobby Thompson,” Mann said. “That was just the beginning.”

I inquired as to when she began to choreograph. Having accelerated early out of high school, Mann went to Valley State University for half a semester thinking that she would become a dance educator, but the dance teacher there kept asking her to choreograph. Because she enjoyed doing that, it was there that she got the idea that perhaps she would become a choreographer.

“I loved it there, but I got a job on a show called “Shindig!”. “Shindig!” was an American musical variety series which aired on ABC and ran for two years, September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The choreographer was David Winters and the director was Dean Whitmore.

“I learned everything about cameras, live shooting, and the director was fabulous,” she explained. “From there I went on to do a lot of other shows.  I didn’t go back to college. My first actual choreography gig came from Elvis.”  Yes, the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley.

At that time, dancers signed up at Screen Extras Guild (SEG) and called in everyday to see if they could get work. Mann was working on a two day job dancing as an extra in a film called “Spin Out”.  She was now just 18 years old.  While dancing in a party sequence, she noticed how the camera was moving around following Elvis Presley and made the decision to make up her own routine.

“In those days it was GoGo and you let your ballet go bye-bye.”  She mused. “So I did four ponies, four jerks, four gerbils, four monkeys, four swims; I just did a whole different routine.”

On the second day of shooting, Jack Baker, the director, told Mann that Mr. Presley wanted to speak with her. At first she thought that perhaps she had gotten herself in trouble by making up the routine but later discovered that everyone had been watching her dance and wanted to know if she would work assisting on Elvis’ next film. Not knowing exactly what that meant, Mann said yes. As it turned out, Jack Baker was also Lucille Ball’s choreographer and he took her onto The Lucy Show as his assistant.

“Lucy gave me full run of the lot.  She taught me everything,” Mann said. “She said learn everything. Watch where everything is happening if you really want to move on. I went to Glenn, Glenn Sound, I learned to edit, I watched the camera. She mentored me and I owe her and Jack Baker so much for that opportunity letting me choreograph. Jack Baker taught me so much about being ready, being on top of it and being prepared.” Mann also played bit parts on The Lucy Show, such as little Desi’s girlfriend. She said that she looked at Lucy, not just as a wonderful mentor, but as a woman who ran her own television studio. Mann learned accounting from her mother and her father was an artist so she learned from both worlds. “But Lucy as a mentor; there was nothing better,” she said.

From there Mann went on to assist Jack Baker and Alex Romero, Jack Cole’s assistant, on the next Elvis Presley film. “I learned from all those amazing choreographers and I was there in those days when we had a lot of work,” she said. “We did TV work and I was assisting Jack Regis, Jack Baker, Alex Romero, and Kevin Carlisle.”

In 1972, Kevin Carlisle was scheduled to choreograph three specials at CBS but he became ill. Mann asked him if she could speak with the head of CBS, Perry Lafferty, to see if she could audition to be the choreographer the specials.  Carlisle said yes, ‘Go for it!’ Lafferty knew Mann from her work on other jobs and agreed to hire her but told her that she did not have any network credits.  Undeterred, Mann asked for a rehearsal studio for a day and that she would bring in some dancers to work with. Lafferty agreed. Mann choreographed a couple of numbers. CBS hired her.

Under the title of Top Of The Month, the three specials ran October, November, and December of 1972 and Mann created numbers for each month.

“My resumé is probably not even [complete]. I was a single mom raising two boys. We didn’t have YouTube, or computers, or iPhones,” she said. “People as me what jobs I did and honesty I don’t remember. I was too busy getting breakfast for the kids, getting them ready for school and going off to work. I was so lucky!  I think that I did a TV special every year for 30 years.”

It was the golden age of variety shows on television like the Carol Burnett Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Sonny & Cher Show, and the Andy Williams Show, to name just a few. “It’s unbelievable that we had that opportunity. We would film all those beach party movies and the other films we did.  We would film those during the night and shoot TV during the day,” Mann said gesturing as she spoke. “And I would also dub tap sounds in films.  I worked day and night. I never said no.”

Mann believed that the more she worked the more she learned and the better she became at her craft. Her resumé is very extensive and long, and we did not have time to discuss all of what she did, so I asked to speak about the long-running Las Vegas hit show Fantasy at the Luxor Las Vegas which she produced and choreographed.

After working on five seasons of Solid Gold (1985-1990) she was asked to direct and choreograph a musical titled AM Music, A Blast From the Past at the Back Lot in West Hollywood. Her background in choreographing musicals and star shows in Vegas, had led the producer to seek her out. As it turned out, the producers disappeared for three weeks and no one was getting paid. Undeterred, Mann located them and using her life savings, purchased the rights to the musical and started from scratch.

Actor/writer Tom Peru and Mann rewrote the show and her family helped with everything from costumes to scenery to the promotional materials. Once it was finished, Mann invited every hotel entertainment executive in the country as well as many other influential people in the business to come to the Back Lot. On the last night of the show Meshulam Riklis, who owned the Rivera Hotel in Las Vegas came to see the show and asked Mann to open it in his hotel in January, a month later.  Again, Mann rose to the occasion and said yes.

“It was my first experience producing, directing, choreographing. I was doing it all except for the other writer. It was a book musical,” Mann said proudly. Her mother helped with the very complex duty of acquiring the rights to the music as the songs progressed the storyline. It was the beginning of Mann’s current company, Anita Mann Productions.

In 1999, Mann was offered for an adult mid-night show. She wrote what she called a mid-night fantasy about a little girl named Cinderella. The show was originally called Midnight Fantasy but after the show times changed, it was eventually renamed Fantasy: The Strip’s Sexiest Tease. It is a topless production in Las Vegas with the longest duration at a single venue.

“I was so busy raising my kids. No one in LA knew what I was doing but I had a big company and I was working all the time,” Mann said softly. “It is just the history of being in the right place, from walking home from school – to take that leap and to believe in yourself and to not be afraid.  It’s scary, but you just follow your dream.”

The idea for a Dance Hall of Fame occurred to Mann in 2019 but was delayed by the COVID pandemic. She was shown amazing dance footage archived by Mel and Kurt Sorterlin and also archival materials about choreographers on film collected by dance/author Larry Billman. Mann introduced these men to director Louis J. Horvitz who said, ‘Maybe we should have a Hall of Fame.’  Mann heard that and she took it on.  It became her legacy project, but not her last, by a long shot.

You can read more about the Dance Hall of Fame in my recent article in LA Dance Chronicle. The Dance Hall of Fame has its first event on December 3, 2025 at the Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center.

My final question was given to me by my friend and colleague, Joanne DiVito.  What gives you this fire in the belly to be so generous with the LA Dance Community?

“I was so blessed that I was able to pay my rent, help my parents and pay our bills because of dance and it started here in LA,” Mann began. Her family moved every year and they never owned a house. “It makes me cry because wherever we lived, we had nothing but dance.”

Mann learned to balance family life and career by example. Her mom worked three jobs a day and she never complained. It just was what you do.  Her dad was an artist but couldn’t paint very much because he was always working in construction. She and her brother worked after school to help pay the rent and pay the bills. “I think that fire in my belly comes from dance. It has given me an incredible life and I am so grateful.”

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Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.

Featured image: Anita Mann accepting the 2017 World Choreography Award – Photo courtesy of Anita Mann Productions.