Kenny Ortega
Kenny Ortega ( born April 18, 1950 in Palo Alto, California) is an American choreographer, producer and director.
Career
Kenny Ortega began his career as an actor in musicals. In the late 1970s he worked for the stage shows of the rock band The Tubes. As a choreographer he was discovered on this occasion by the singer Cher, who hired him for one of their television shows. For the film, he came as an assistant choreographer for the movie musical Xanadu (1980). He became known eventually as a choreographer of movies like Pretty in Pink ( 1986) and Dirty Dancing ( 1987) and at a dance video of Madonna. 1992 brought along with Kenny Ortega Michael Jackson Dangerous World Tour on its stage. In 1997, there was another collaboration with Michael Jackson for the " History Tour ". For the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, he was both awarded an Emmy for directing and choreography. He received another Emmy for the choreography of the film High School Musical (2006), which he also directed. In addition, he led, among other things, directed twelve episodes of the television series Gilmore Girls. He now lives with his wife Caroline and his daughter Hannah in California. In 2009, he again worked with Michael Jackson on his planned tour, but did not take place because of Michael Jackson's death. However, over 100 hours of footage were used by the sample of Michael Jackson's This Is It for a documentary whose director Ortega took over and took the world on 28 October 2009 for 2 weeks the way to the cinema.