List of dancers



A

B

C

D

  • Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo, also known as Nappytabs, choreographers and creative directors who are credited with developing the new style of hip-hop dance known as lyrical hip-hop.
  • Alex Da Silva, Brazilian dancer and choreographer, specializing in Salsa dancing. Da Silva is also known for being a recurring guest choreographer on the Fox TV show So You Think You Can Dance.
  • Astad Deboo, Indian dancer-choreographer, who has mixed a modern and contemporary dance styles, with Indian classical dance forms of Kathak and Kathakali in which he has trained, to create style unique to him.
  • Nicole de Weever, Sint Maarten dancer and choreographer
  • Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise.
  • Charles-Louis Didelot, French dancer and choreographer
  • Lucinda Dickey, American dancer and actress best known for her role as Kelly in the 1984 cult film Breakin' and the 1984 sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
  • Devi Dja, Indonesian-born American dancer, choreographer, actress, and singer
  • Tia Doca, Brazilian samba dancer and singer
  • Doctor Ice, influenced Hip-Hop dancing to a new form. His influence can be noted by the dance moves in videos done by artists such as Kid N Play, Scrap Lover and Scoop Lover and G-Wiz and the late Trouble T-Roy.
  • Shabba Doo, American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director. He has appeared in film and television. He became one of the founders of hip hop dancing as a member of The Original Lockers. He is one of the pioneers the dance style commonly known as "locking".
  • Isadora Duncan, American dancer. She was born Angela Isadora Duncan in San Francisco, California, and is considered by many to be the mother of Modern Dance. Although never very popular in the United States, she entertained throughout Europe.
  • Katherine Mary Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator and activist who was trained as an anthropologist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century and has been called the Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance.
  • Dharmesh Yelande, Indian dancer, choreographer and reality show judge

E

  • Amera Eid, Australian belly dancer and owner of an Australian belly dance school, Amera's Palace. Eid opened Amera's Palace belly dance boutique in 1987, which included one of the first belly dance schools in Sydney.
  • Fanny Elssler, Austrian dancer
  • Makhmud Esambayev, Soviet Chechen actor and dancer
  • Norberto Esbrez, Argentinian tango dancer, choreographer, and teacher of tango nuevo. He is known as El Pulpo or octopus for his fluid and intricate leg moves.

F

  • Eugene Louis Faccuito, American jazz dancer, choreographer, teacher and innovator who is best known for creating a jazz exercise technique.
  • Lusi Faiva, known for physically integrated dance
  • Nora Fatehi, Indian dancer, singer, and actress, she is a belly dancer and Hip- hop dancer.
  • Antonio Fini, Italian dancer, choreographer, educator and producer
  • Michael Ryan Flatley, Irish step dancer from the south side of the country
  • Flying Steps, German breakdance crew, founded in 1993.
  • Cristina Wistari Formaggia, key participant in the preservation and dissemination of Balinese dance
  • Bob Fosse, dancer, actor, film director, film editor, screenwriter, and most notably a groundbreaking jazz/musical theatre choreographer. He won eight tony awards for choreography. His unique and famous style has been imitated and recreated over and over again throughout the world.
  • Michel Fokine, groundbreaking Russian choreographer and dancer. Fokine staged more than 70 ballets in Europe and the United States.
  • Evan-Burrows Fontaine, American interpretive dancer and Ziegfeld Follies performer
  • Dame Margot Fonteyn, widely regarded as England's greatest ballerina, stage partner and friend of Rudolf Nureyev for many years.
  • William Forsythe, American dancer and choreographer resident in Dresden in Saxony. He is known internationally for his work with the Frankfurt Ballet and his reorientation of classical ballet.
  • Joe Frisco, American vaudeville performer who first made his name on stage as a jazz dancer, but later incorporated his stuttering voice to his act and became a popular comedian. Frisco was a mainstay on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his Broadway debut in the Florenz Ziegfeld Follies in 1918.
  • Chicho Frumboli, one of the most famous Argentine Tango dancers. He is best known for his improvisation skills, and is regarded as one of the founders of Tango nuevo. He usually dances in this open style but is at ease when dancing close. He performed among others with Gotan Project, Tanghetto and Narcotango.
  • Loie Fuller, pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.
  • Marcelo Ferreira, one of the most talented Brazilian Dancers, now he is a Coryphee with the Leipziger Ballett, Germany. Finished his training at the School of the Hamburg Ballet, under direction of Kevin Heigen and Gigi Hyatt, worked with the Bundesjugendballett where he was nominated “Talent to watch” by Dance Magazine in 2017.

G

  • Antonio Gades, Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer. He helped to popularize the art form on the international stage.
  • Samia Gamal, Egyptian belly dancer and film actress. In 1949, Egypt's King Farouk proclaimed Samia Gamal "The National Dancer of Egypt", which brought US attention to the dancer.
  • Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt, was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in 1860, and retiring in 1916.
  • Gus Giordano, American jazz dancer
  • Savion Glover, American actor, tap dancer, and choreographer
  • Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, and is widely considered one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

H

I

  • Krissie Illing, English dancer, mime, clown, comedian, and ventriloquist

J

  • Janet Jackson, American singer and entertainer.
  • Michael Jackson, American musician and entertainer, often cited by various media outlets as the "World's Best Dancer".
  • Judith Jamison was an American dancer and choreographer. She danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1965 to 1980 and was Ailey's muse. She later returned to be the company's artistic director from 1989 until 2011, and then its artistic director emerita.
  • Robert Joffrey, American dancer, teacher, producer, and choreographer, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets.-American descent to win the title.
  • Thomas Johnson, American dancer, best known as the inventor of the "clowning" style of dance, which evolved into the popular "krumping" style. Johnson invented the style in 1992, to enhance birthday party clown acts, thereby creating the concept of "hip-hop clowns". Johnson and his followers have performed at birthday parties ranging from inner city communities to celebrities like
  • Tamsier Joof, British dancer and choreographer trained in classical ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, African and voguing. Tamsier is one of the early London voguers. He is of a Senegalese and Gambian descent.
  • Master Juba, an African-American dancer active in the 1840s highly influential in the development of such American dance styles as tap, jazz, and step dancing

K

L

M

  • Madonna, American recording artist, actress and dancer. Her controversially successful career has made her one of the best selling artists of all time and one of the world's most influential dancers.
  • Madhuri Dixit, Indian actress, producer, television personality, trained classical dancers and one of the leading actresses in Bollywood.
  • Natalia Makarova, Soviet-Russian prima ballerina. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that "Her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation." She has also won awards as an actress and continues to stage classical ballets throughout the world.
  • Frankie Manning, American dancer, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop.
  • Mario, Award-winning R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. He was runner-up as the "Wasp" on The Masked Singer season 12.
  • István Martin, Franco-Hungarian ballet dancer
  • Mata Hari, stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I. Many books have been written about Mata Hari, some of them serious historical and biographical accounts, and many of them highly speculative.
  • Mario Maya, recognized as one of the greatest flamenco dancers and choreographers of all times. He is the father of Belen Maya, one of the main figures of contemporary flamenco dance.
  • Adriana Miller, American who helped in the renaissance of Middle Eastern dance in Washington, D.C.
  • Ann Miller, American dancer, singer and actress
  • Norma Miller, American swing dancer known as the Queen of Swing
  • Jewel McGowan, dancer of Lindy Hop, a form of swing dance, in the 1940s and 1950s. She is known among dance aficionados as the frequent partner of dancer Dean Collins. Jewel was considered by her fellow Los Angeles dancers to be the best female swing dancer who ever lived.
  • Baisali Mohanty, Indian classical dancer and choreographer of Indian dancing style Odissi. Widely regarded as one of the most promising dancer of her generation, Baisali has been performing along with her own dance company "Baisali Mohanty & Troupe" for over a decade in major International and national festivals.
  • Alex Moore, pioneer of modern ballroom dancing, a dancer, dance teacher and author of classical ballroom dancing books. His Ballroom Dancing is considered to be the "Bible" of International-style ballroom dancing.
  • Mary Murphy, ballroom dance champion, accredited dance judge, and a regular judge and choreographer on the FOX dance competition-reality show So You Think You Can Dance. Mary Murphy is a former U.S. champion ballroom dancer and TV personality. She was born in Lancaster, Ohio, the only daughter in an Irish family of four children. She graduated from Northwest High School in Canal Fulton, Ohio.
  • Mukti Mohan, Indian dancer and actress; winner of Zara Nachke Dikha 2

N

O

P

R

S

T

  • Marie Taglioni, famous Italian ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance
  • Layla Taj, Egyptian belly dancer whose dances communicate aspects of Egyptian traditions and culture
  • Maria Tallchief, America's first major prima ballerina, widely considered to have revolutionized American ballet.
  • Twyla Tharp, leading American dancer and choreographer. She has won Emmy and Tony awards, and currently works as a choreographer in New York City.
  • Lisa Joann Thompson, American dancer and choreographer, best known for starring as a Fly Girl on the In Living Color television show.
  • Danny Tidwell, American contemporary and ballet dancer and choreographer, best known for being the runner-up on Fox's third season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2007.
  • Alphonse Tierou, French dancer, choreographer, and scholar of dance
  • Eddie Torres, famed salsa dance instructor
  • Joyce Trisler, American modem dancer and choreographer.
  • Antony Tudor, born William Cook, influential 20th-century English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer

U

V

W

Y

Z

  • Mackenzie Ziegler, American dancer, singer, author, and actress who is most known for her role on the reality show, Dance Moms.
  • Maddie Ziegler, American dancer, actress and model who is most known for her role on the reality show, Dance Moms, as well as the main dancer in the music videos for Australian singer-songwriter Sia.
  • Lahcen Zinoun, Moroccan choreographer, dancer and filmmaker; considered the greatest contemporary Moroccan choreographer.