Graciela Daniele (born December 8, 1939) is an Argentine-American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director.
Biography
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Raúl Daniele and Rosa del Carmen Almoina. After her parents divorced, her mother got a job as a secretary for the Argentinian government. Later, her mother became an actress.
Daniele began her dance training at the age of seven at Teatro Colón, Argentina's equivalent of Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre. She later moved to Paris to continue her ballet studies, and while living there attended a performance of West Side Story, with Jerome Robbins's original choreography. Overwhelmed by the way dance was an integral part of the story-telling, she decided to move to New York City to study jazz and modern dance, styles she felt were best for expressing human emotions on stage.[1]
As a performer, Daniele made her Broadway debut in What Makes Sammy Run? in 1964. She studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham while working with Bob Fosse, Agnes de Mille, and Michael Bennett, who hired her to assist him with Follies in 1971. Her first credit as a full-fledged choreographer was the 1979 revival of The Most Happy Fella.
Daniele has worked with Woody Allen on three films, Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, and Bullets over Broadway.[2]
In addition to her work in New York City, where she has choreographed for Ballet Hispanico and served as a director-in-residence at Lincoln Center, Daniele has directed and/or choreographed theatrical, opera, and dance productions throughout the United States.[3][4]
She has directed and/or choreographed several musicals of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, including, most recently, The Glorious Ones (2007) and Dessa Rose (2005) at the Off-Broadway Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center. She has directed and/or choreographed several musicals of Michael John LaChiusa Off-Broadway, most recently Bernarda Alba (2006) and Little Fish (2003).[5]
In 1991, she was the first to direct William Finn's two one-act musicals March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland as one evening of theater, for the Hartford Stage Company.[6] This combination went on to become the musical Falsettos.[citation needed]
In 2005, Daniele was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.[7]
