© Latinas in History 2008
Dolores
Conchita Figueroa del Rivero better known as the very talented actress,
singer, and dancer Chita Rivera, loved to perform as a child. She was
encouraged to study singing and dancing and at seventeen won a scholarship
to George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet in New York City.
For the rest of her career, she proceeded to set records on Broadway.
Appearing in a string of critically acclaimed theatrical production,
Rivera was well prepared for the role of Anita in West Side Story.
The musical ran for 732 performances and the role, which garnered her
a Tony nomination, became synonymous with Rivera. In 1959 she played
Rosie Grant in Bye Bye Birdie and received a second Tony nomination
for Birdie and a third nomination for her next role as Anyanka the gypsy
princess in Bajour. In the late 1960s, she performed in The
Threepenny Opera, Flower Drum Song, and Sweet Charity.
On tour once again in the early 1970s, Rivera’s appeared in Jacques
Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Born Yesterday,
The Rose Tattoo, and Kiss Me Kate. In 1975 Rivera
opened as Velma Kelly in the extraordinary Broadway production of Chicago
and received a fourth Tony nomination but it was the musical The
Rink created especially for Rivera by Ebb and Kander, that brought
Rivera the Tony as outstanding actress in a musical. Kiss of the
Spider Woman garnered a second Tony. She was honored by the Kennedy
Center in 2002, and the following year appeared opposite Antonio Banderas
in the musical adaptation of Nine. In her seventies, Rivera
continues to light up the stage.
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