The
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
for Best Choreography is awarded to acknowledge the contributions of choreographers in both musicals and plays. The award has been given since 1947, but nominees were not announced until 1956.
Winners and nominees
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Award records
Multiple wins
;8 Wins
*
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
;5 Wins
*
Michael Bennett
*
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.
Early years
Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice ...
*
Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd (August 12, 1915 – December 23, 2007) was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, stron ...
;4 Wins
*
Susan Stroman
*
Tommy Tune
Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Wal ...
;3 Wins
*
Andy Blankenbuehler
Andy Blankenbuehler (born March 7, 1970) is an American dancer, choreographer and director primarily for stage and concerts. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography five times, and has won three times: for '' In the Height ...
*
Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall (born September 28, 1962) is an American director, choreographer, and creative consultant.
Life and career
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1980 and S ...
*
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
;2 Wins
*
Bob Avian
Robert Avedisian (December 26, 1937 – January 21, 2021), professionally known as Bob Avian, was an American choreographer, theatrical producer and director.
Biography
Born in New York City to an Armenian family in December 1937, Avian spent his ...
*
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Early years
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMill ...
*
Ron Field
Ron Field (October 18, 1933 – February 6, 1989) was an American choreographer, dancer, and director.
Life and career
Field was born in New York City, New York where he made his Broadway debut as a child in ''Lady in the Dark'' (1941) with Ge ...
*
Bill T. Jones
*
Joe Layton
Joe Layton (May 3, 1931 – May 5, 1994) was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.Dunning, Jennifer. (9 May 1994). Page B7.'Joe Layton, Choreographer And Director, Is Dead at 64' Obituary. New York Ti ...
*
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell is an American theatre director and choreographer.
Early life and education
Born in Paw Paw, Michigan, Mitchell later moved to St. Louis where he pursued his acting, dancing and directing career in theatre. Although he did not ...
*
Donald Saddler
Donald Edward Saddler (January 24, 1918 – November 1, 2014) was an American choreographer, dancer, and theatre director.
Biography
Born in Van Nuys, California, Saddler studied dance at an early age to regain his strength after a bout of sca ...
*
Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Peter Wheeldon OBE (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet.
Life and career
Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dan ...
Multiple nominations
;11 Nominations
*
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
;10 Nominations
*
Michael Bennett
*
Susan Stroman
;8 Nominations
*
Graciela Daniele 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 jo ...
*
Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd (August 12, 1915 – December 23, 2007) was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, stron ...
*
Onna White
Onna White (March 24, 1922 – April 8, 2005) was a Canadian choreographer and dancer, nominated for eight Tony Awards.
Early life and career
Born in Inverness, Nova Scotia, White began taking dance lessons at the age of twelve, and eventual ...
;7 Nominations
*
Rob Ashford
Rob Ashford (born November 19, 1959) is an American stage director and choreographer. He is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner.
Early life and education
Born in Orlando, Florida and ...
*
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.
Early years
Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice ...
*
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell is an American theatre director and choreographer.
Early life and education
Born in Paw Paw, Michigan, Mitchell later moved to St. Louis where he pursued his acting, dancing and directing career in theatre. Although he did not ...
;6 Nominations
*
Wayne Cilento
Wayne Louis Cilento (born August 28, 1949) is an American director and choreographer. He is best known for originating the role of Mike in the Broadway show ''A Chorus Line'', and later becoming one of Broadway's most prolific choreographers.
...
*
Casey Nicholaw
Casey Nicholaw (born October 6, 1962) is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. He has been nominated for several Tony Awards for his work directing and choreographing ''The Drowsy Chaperone'' (2006), ''The Book of Mormon'' (20 ...
*
Tommy Tune
Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Wal ...
;5 Nominations
*
Patricia Birch
Patricia Birch (born October 16, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, film director, and theatre director.
Early life
Born in Englewood, New Jersey, Birch began her career as a dancer in Broadway musicals, including ''Brigadoon (musical), ...
*
Andy Blankenbuehler
Andy Blankenbuehler (born March 7, 1970) is an American dancer, choreographer and director primarily for stage and concerts. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography five times, and has won three times: for '' In the Height ...
*
Christopher Gattelli
Christopher Gattelli is an American choreographer, performer and theatre director.
Early life and career
Gattelli grew up in Bristol, Pennsylvania. He started dancing at the age of 11 and is a "Star Search" Grand champion.
*
Peter Gennaro
Peter Gennaro (November 23, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Biography
Gennaro was born in Metairie, Louisiana. He made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of ''Make Mine Manhattan'' in 1948. He followed t ...
*
Kathleen Marshall
Kathleen Marshall (born September 28, 1962) is an American director, choreographer, and creative consultant.
Life and career
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1980 and S ...
*
Rob Marshall
Robert Doyle Marshall Jr.http://www.alumni.cmu.edu/s/1410/images/editor_documents/alumnirelations/getinvolved/alumniawards/all_honorees_2018june1.pdf (born October 17, 1960) is an American film and theater director, producer, and choreographer. ...
;4 Nominations
*
Bob Avian
Robert Avedisian (December 26, 1937 – January 21, 2021), professionally known as Bob Avian, was an American choreographer, theatrical producer and director.
Biography
Born in New York City to an Armenian family in December 1937, Avian spent his ...
*
Ron Field
Ron Field (October 18, 1933 – February 6, 1989) was an American choreographer, dancer, and director.
Life and career
Field was born in New York City, New York where he made his Broadway debut as a child in ''Lady in the Dark'' (1941) with Ge ...
*
Steven Hoggett
*
Joe Layton
Joe Layton (May 3, 1931 – May 5, 1994) was an American director and choreographer known primarily for his work on Broadway.Dunning, Jennifer. (9 May 1994). Page B7.'Joe Layton, Choreographer And Director, Is Dead at 64' Obituary. New York Ti ...
*
Donald McKayle
Donald McKayle (July 6, 1930 – April 6, 2018) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and writer best known for creating socially conscious concert works during the 1950s and '60s that focus on expressing the human con ...
*
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
*
Donald Saddler
Donald Edward Saddler (January 24, 1918 – November 1, 2014) was an American choreographer, dancer, and theatre director.
Biography
Born in Van Nuys, California, Saddler studied dance at an early age to regain his strength after a bout of sca ...
*
Randy Skinner
Randy Skinner is an American dancer, director and choreographer, primarily for the stage. He has been nominated four times for Tony Awards, three times for Drama Desk Awards, and four times for Outer Critics Circle Awards for choreography.
Ear ...
;3 Nominations
*
Warren Carlyle
Warren Carlyle is a British director and choreographer who was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England. He received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Director of a Musical for the 2009 revival of '' Finian's Rai ...
*
Danny Daniels
Danny Daniels, (October 25, 1924 – July 9, 2017), born Daniel Giagni, Jr., was an American choreographer, tap dancer, and a dance teacher.
Daniels was a featured dancer in several 1940s Broadway musicals, including '' Billion Dollar Baby'', ' ...
*
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Early years
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMill ...
*
Carol Haney
Carol Haney (born Carolyn Haney; December 24, 1924 – May 10, 1964) was an American dancer and actress. After assisting Gene Kelly in choreographing films, Haney won a Tony Award for her role in Broadway's ''The Pajama Game'', while later wo ...
*
Bill T. Jones
*
Henry LeTang
Henry LeTang (June 19, 1915April 26, 2007) was an American theatre,
film, and television choreographer and a dance instructor.
Biography
Born in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan, LeTang was the second son of Clarence, born in Dominica, a ...
*
Peter Darling
Peter Darling (born 25 October 1963) is an English dancer and choreographer best known for his award-winning work in ''Billy Elliot the Musical''.
In 2010 he choreographed '' Matilda the Musical'' at the RSC's Courtyard Theatre, which has since t ...
;2 Nominations
*
Robert Alton
Robert Alton (2 January 1902 – 12 June 1957) was an American dancer and choreographer, a major figure in dance choreography of Broadway and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s through to the early 1950s. He is principally remembered today as the ...
*
Matthew Bourne
Sir Matthew Christopher Bourne (born 13 January 1960) is an English choreographer whose work includes contemporary dance and dance theatre.
Choreographer
In 2007, Bourne contemplated a gay version of ''Romeo and Juliet''. Despite the succ ...
*
John Carrafa
John Carrafa is an American theater and film director/choreographer best known as the two-time Tony Award nominated choreographer of the Broadway musicals ''Urinetown'' and ''Into The Woods'' and the Media Choreography Honors Award winner for the R ...
*
George Faison
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
*
Savion Glover
Savion Glover (born November 19, 1973) is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer.
Early life
The youngest of three sons, Glover was born to a white father, who left the family before he was born, and a black mother. Glover's great grand ...
* Denis Jones
* Dania Krupska
*
Gillian Lynne
Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne (née Pyrke; 20 February 1926 – 1 July 2018) was an English ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-runnin ...
* Joey McKneely
* Dan Siretta
*
Michael Smuin
Michael Smuin (October 13, 1938 – April 23, 2007) was an American ballet dancer, choreographer and theatre director. He was co-founder and director of his own dance company, the Smuin Ballet in San Francisco.
Biography
Born in Missoula, Montan ...
*
Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp (; born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.
Fr ...
*
Sergio Trujillo
Sergio Trujillo is a theater director and choreographer. Born in Colombia and raised in Toronto, Canada, he is now an American citizen and resides in New York City. Trujillo was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography for ''Ai ...
*
Thommie Walsh
Thomas Joseph "Thommie" Walsh III (March 15, 1950 – June 16, 2007) was an American dancer, choreographer, director, and author.
Biography
Thommie Walsh was born in Auburn, New York, and began to study dance at age five at the Irma Baker Schoo ...
*
Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Peter Wheeldon OBE (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet.
Life and career
Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dan ...
* Billy Wilson
See also
*
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions.
Winners and nominees
1960s
1970s
1980s
...
*
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer
The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Aw ...
References
*
External links
The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards official website
{{TonyAwardsbyYear
Tony Awards
Choreography awards
Awards established in 1947
1947 establishments in the United States