Patricia Birch

Patricia Ann Birch, born on October 16, 1934, in Englewood, New Jersey, is an American dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and film director. She began her professional life as a performer in Broadway musicals, appearing on stage between 1957 and 1960 in productions including Brigadoon, Goldilocks, and West Side Story, in which she played the role of Anybodys. During this period she also performed as a soloist with Martha Graham and Agnes de Mille, and in the 1960s she taught dance at the Juilliard School's pre-college division in New York City.

Birch transitioned from performing to choreography and built an extensive Broadway career staging musicals across several decades. Her choreography credits include You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Grease, A Little Night Music, Over Here!, Pacific Overtures, They're Playing Our Song, Zoot Suit, Raggedy Ann, for which she also served as director, Anna Karenina, Candide, Parade, Band in Berlin, and Lovemusik. Her musical staging work includes The Me Nobody Knows. She received Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Choreography in 1972 for Grease and in 1974, and earned Tony Award nominations for Grease, Over Here!, Pacific Overtures, Music Is, and Parade, among others. In 2009 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Her work extended prominently into film, where her choreography credits include Grease, which she followed with Grease 2 as both choreographer and director, as well as A Little Night Music, Big, The First Wives Club, Sleeping with the Enemy, Billy Bathgate, The Stepford Wives, and numerous other productions spanning from 1971 through 2004. She also directed and choreographed music videos for Cyndi Lauper, The Rolling Stones, and Carly Simon, and spent six years staging numbers for Saturday Night Live. Her television work earned her Emmy Awards for directing the specials Natalie Cole: Unforgettable and Celebrating Gershwin. In collaboration with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, she staged a concert version of On the Town performed by both the London Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.