Tony-winning Choreographer, Actress Ann Reinking Dies At 71

NEW YORK: Ann Reinking, the Tony Award-winning choreographer, actress and Bob Fosse collaborator who helped spread a cool, muscular hybrid of jazz and burlesque movement to Broadway and beyond, has died. She was 71.

Reinking died Saturday while visiting family in Seattle, said her manager, Lee Gross. No cause of death was disclosed.

Trained as a ballet dancer, Reinking was known for her bold style of dance epitomized by her work in the revival of the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago, complete with net stockings, chair dancing and plenty of pelvic thrusts.

Reinking co-starred as Roxie Hart along with Bebe Neuwirths Velma, and created the choreography in the style of Bob Fosse, the shows original director and choreographer who died in 1987. She and Fosse worked together for 15 years and she was also his lover for several of them.

Her work on Chicago earned her a 1997 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Reinking replicated its choreography in productions throughout the world England, Australia, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and elsewhere. She was portrayed by Margaret Qualley in the recent FX series Fosse/Verdon.

The musicals revival was first done in a concert version at City Centers Encores series in 1996 and then moved to Broadway, where in 2011 it became the second longest-running show in Broadway history.

You know how you hear sometimes a woman goes into labor and 10 minutes later shes got this beautiful baby? You couldnt believe that it was materializing in such a beautiful way, she told The Associated Press in 2011 about the early days of the revival.

In 1998, she co-directed Fosse, a salute to the man who had the largest influence, both professionally and personally, on her life. He once called her one of the finest dancers in the jazz-modern idiom.

Her movie credits include Annie (1982), Movie, Movie (1978) and the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom (2005), which portrayed Reinking as a ballroom-dance competition judge for New York City kids.

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