Felicia Sorel

Felicia Sorel (September 28, 1903 – September 7, 1972) was a New York-born dancer, choreographer, and dance educator whose Broadway career spanned from 1922 to 1934 as a performer and extended further through her subsequent work as a choreographer. Raised in Brooklyn Heights, she was the daughter of a physician father and a mother who taught music. She trained under Michel Fokine, Vicente Escudero, and Mary Wigman, developing proficiency across multiple dance genres, including modern, black bottom, and flamenco.

Sorel's performing credits on Broadway began in 1922 with The Rose of Stamboul and Pin Wheel, the latter produced by Michio Itō and listed in some sources under the title Raymond Hitchcock's Pin Wheel. In 1925 she appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities, and her final Broadway performing credits came in 1934 with both After Such Pleasures and Saluta.

Following her years as a Broadway performer, Sorel transitioned into choreography. Her Broadway choreography credits include Pins and Needles (1937), Everywhere I Roam (1939), Jeremiah (1939), The Gondoliers (1940), The Mikado (1940), The Pirates of Penzance (1940), The Trojan Women (1941), The Pirate (1941–1943), Run, Little Chillun (1943), My Dear Public (1943), Lysistrata (1946), King Henry VIII (1946–1947), and Louisiana Lady (1947). New York Times dance critic John Martin, writing about her choreography for Everywhere I Roam, noted that her gifts as a dancer had long been recognized and that she had shown additional promise designing dances for dramatic productions, doing so brilliantly and without compromise.

Sorel and her first husband, fellow dancer Gluck Sandor, jointly operated a dance studio and a dance company, with Jerome Robbins among their students. She also taught at the American Theatre Wing and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and during the 1930s she worked within the Works Progress Administration. In 1943 she helped establish the Negro Dance Company and gave a recital at the Labor Stage Theatre. In 1949 she founded Sorel Productions, a venture specializing in the promotion, production, and staging of fashion shows and industrial exhibits.

Sorel died in Las Vegas on September 7, 1972, from cancer, at the age of 66.