Margo Sappington

Margo Sappington is an American dancer and choreographer born on July 30, 1947, in Baytown, Texas. Her performing career on Broadway spanned 1968 to 1969, with credits including Oh! Calcutta! and Promises, Promises. She went on to build a distinguished career as a choreographer for stage, ballet, opera, film, and television.

Sappington's connection to the Joffrey Ballet began in 1965, when founder Robert Joffrey personally invited her to join the company. In 1969, she co-wrote, choreographed, and performed in the original off-Broadway production of Oh! Calcutta!, and in 1971 she created Weewis, her first ballet. Her choreographic work for the 1974–1975 Broadway revival of Where's Charley? earned her nominations in 1975 for both the Tony Award for Best Choreographer and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography. Additional Broadway choreography credits include the 1976 revival of Pal Joey, the 1982 production Play Me a Country Song, the 1983–1984 run of Doonesbury, and the Oh! Calcutta! revival, which ran from 1976 to 1989.

In 1983, Sappington became the first American choreographer to work with Beijing's Central Ballet of China, for whom she created the ballet Heliotrope. Five years later, she created Virgin Forest for the Milwaukee Ballet, a work inspired by the jungle paintings of Henri Rousseau. The ballet became the subject of an award-winning PBS documentary in 1988. In 1993, as part of the Joffrey Ballet's evening-length production Billboards, she created and performed in Slide, a section scored by the musician Prince. In 2001, she created The Indigo Girls Project for the Atlanta Ballet, developed with the participation of the musical group The Indigo Girls.

In 2005, Sappington created and danced a role in the premiere of Charles Strouse's Real Men at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. That same year, the Joffrey Ballet presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the arts. In 2007, she created the ballet Common People for the Milwaukee Ballet, set to William Shatner's album Has Been. Shatner attended the premiere and filmed the event, footage that was later incorporated into the 2009 feature film Gonzo Ballet, for which Sappington also received a writing credit.

Her choreography has been performed by numerous American companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Houston Ballet, the Harkness Ballet, the Carolina Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet, as well as international companies such as Aterballetto and Nederlands Dans Theater. Sappington has also choreographed opera productions including Aida, Samson and Delilah, and La Gioconda for the San Francisco Opera. Her screen credits include the 1972 film of Oh! Calcutta!, in which she served as actress, choreographer, and writer, as well as choreography for the 1990 television series The Baby-Sitters Club and the 2009 documentary The Daring Project.