List of Dancers - M

M

• Madonna (born August 16, 1958) is an 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. Madonna's dancing abilities are often viewed as improvised, entertaining and agile. Madonna has a very lengthily career of singles, albums and dance sequences and has been nicknamed the Princess of Pop and later, the Queen of Pop, along with fellow entertainers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

• Natalia Makarova (born November 21, 1940) is the legendary 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 or Musclehead (born on May 26, 1914) is an American dancer, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Lindy Hop. In recent years, Frankie Manning's annual birthday celebrations have drawn together dancers and instructors from all over the world. His 80th birthday was commemorated by a weekend long celebration in New York City; his 85th culminated in a sold out party at New York's Roseland Ballroom, where a pair of his dance shoes were placed in a showcase along with those of dancers such as Fred Astaire.

• Mario Maya is recognized as one of the greatest flamenco dancers and choreographers of all times. He was born in Córdoba in 1937, but grew up in the Sacromonte of Granada. Some of his most important works include Camelamos Naquerar (1976), Ay! Jondo (1977), Amargo (1986), El Amor Brujo (1987) and Requiem Flamenco. He is the father of Belen Maya, one of the main figures of contemporary flamenco dance.

• Norma Miller (born December 2, 1919 in Harlem, New York) is an American swing dancer known to many people as The Queen of Swing. She was interviewed along with dance partner Frankie Manning in Ken Burns' documentary Jazz. Discussing the early days of swing dancing, Norma describes the start of her dancing career at the Savoy Ballroom (which was just across street from where she lived) during the early 1930s in Harlem. Discovered at the age of twelve by the Savoy Ballroom's legendary dancer Twist Mouth George, Ms. Miller has been in show business ever since.

• Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), a 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, but many of them highly speculative.

• Ann Miller (April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress.Miller was born in eastern Texas, the daughter of Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred Collier, a criminal lawyer. She took up dancing to exercise her legs to help her rickets. She was considered a child dance prodigy. Miller was famed for her speed in tap dancing; she claimed to be able to tap 500 times per minute. She was known as well, especially later in her career, for her distinctive appearance, which reflected a studio-era ideal of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a slash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs.

• Jewel McGowan was a 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. In addition to their social dancing, Dean and Jewel appeared together as dancers in films of the era. They were partners for 11 years and they were often called the Fred and Ginger of Lindy Hop. Jewel is especially known for her hip swivels, which remain admired and unrivaled to this day.

• Alex Moore (born 1901 - died 1991) was a 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. His dancing career started at the age of 6. In 1926 he placed second in a World Championship of ballroom dancing. In 1932 he partnered with Pat Kilpatrick, who would become his wife. In his teaching he travelled all over the world: European countries, North America, Japan, Australia and South Africa.

• Mary Murphy (born March 9) is a 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.