Chita Rivera

Chita Rivera, Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero actually, ( born January 23, 1933, Washington, DC, USA) is an American actress and dancer.

Chita Rivera is the daughter of a Latin American musician and began at the age of eleven years with ballet lessons. When the family moved to New York, the teenager was taught by choreographer George Balanchine. Already at the age of seventeen Rivera appeared in a musical on Broadway.

The big breakthrough came when she played the role of Anita in the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. She stayed on Broadway and never made ​​the jump to Hollywood. In the film version of West Side Story Rita Moreno took over her role and won an Oscar.

In larger film roles Rivera was seen only twice, in 1969 in Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity at the side of Shirley MacLaine and 2002 in Chicago. The latter role, however, was rather intended as a tribute to her since she had played the lead role in the 1970s in the stage version of the play.

Chita Rivera won in the course of her long career three Tony Awards. She was married to the actor, dancer, choreographer and director Tony murder duck, the A -Rab played in the stage version of West Side Story and in the film version took over the role of the action. 1958 their daughter Lisa mordents was born, which is a well known dancer and choreographer today.

Important Broadway productions