RIP, Michael Smuin

This is a huge shock for the ballet world:

Choreographer Michael Smuin, a major force in the San Francisco dance world and one of the region's most prominent and audacious showmen, died of an apparent heart attack Monday morning after collapsing while teaching a Smuin Ballet company class.

...Known for the vibrant, expressive and brassy work he created for his own company, for various regional companies, on Broadway and in Hollywood, Smuin was co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet from 1973 to 1985. He danced with that company from 1953 to 1961 and later with the American Ballet Theatre, where he was both a principal dancer and choreographer.

Smuin won a Tony Award on Broadway in 1988 for his choreography of "Anything Goes" and was nominated for a Tony in 1981 for "Sophisticated Ladies." He received an Emmy Award in 1984 for "Great Performances: Dance in America." He choreographed pieces for Dance Theatre of Harlem, Milwaukee Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Washington Ballet. His film choreography credits include "Rumble Fish," "The Cotton Club" and "So I Married an Axe Murderer."

...Smuin's 1977 production of "Romeo and Juliet" for San Francisco Ballet helped raise the company's national and international profile. The production aired on PBS' "Dance in America" the following year. "He made San Francisco Ballet a company to take seriously," said dance critic Allan Ulrich, who covered Smuin's work for the San Francisco Examiner and later for The Chronicle.

Despite various setbacks, including a traumatic break with San Francisco Ballet when his contract was not renewed in 1985, a failed production of "Shogun: The Musical" that he directed and choreographed on Broadway in 1990 and critical misgivings about his work, Smuin remained vital and productive. In the 13 years he ran Smuin Ballet, he choreographed more than 40 pieces. He was at work on a new season, which will open as scheduled in May, when he died.

...Smuin was born on Oct. 13, 1938, in Missoula, Mont. His mother was a Mormon, he told The Chronicle in 2001. His father worked as a Safeway butcher. Michael studied tap dancing as a child and caught the dance fever for good when his mother took him to see the touring Ballet Russe at the University of Montana. He attended Missoula's Hellgate High, where he lettered in boxing in his freshman year. At age 14, he moved to Salt Lake City on a dance scholarship at the University of Utah. San Francisco Ballet director Lew Christensen recruited him in 1953, when Smuin was 15. He eventually received his high school degree from Galileo High in San Francisco.

After dancing with San Francisco Ballet for eight years, Smuin married a fellow company member, Paula Tracy. The couple moved to New York in 1961. Smuin was cast in a Broadway musical, "Little Me," directed by Bob Fosse, in 1962. Smuin and Tracy mounted a night-club dance act, which they toured around the country and overseas. First Smuin and then Tracy joined American Ballet Theatre in 1965. Smuin choreographed "Pulcinella Variations," "The Catherine Wheel" and other pieces for ABT before the couple returned to San Francisco. They divorced in 2000.

..."He absolutely loved what he did," said Amy Seiwert, a Smuin Ballet dancer for the past eight years. "It's been a very intense morning, but I think it's very beautiful that we were all there with him at the end." Seiwert recalled something Smuin said to her once and that she often repeated back to him. " 'If I only did the things I was supposed to do,' " Smuin told her, " 'I would never do anything.' "