Donna McKechnie

Donna McKechnie (born November 16, 1940) is a Tony Award-winning American musical theater dancer, singer. actress and choreographer. She is perhaps best known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most famous role, "Cassie" from the musical A Chorus Line. McKechnie was born in Pontiac, Michigan. She took beginner ballet classes at age five. Her earliest influence was the classic British ballet film The Red Shoes (1948), which prompted her, at age six, to plan a career as a ballerina. Despite her parents' strong misgivings, she moved to New York City when she was 17. Rejected after an audition for the American Ballet Theatre, she found employment in the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall but walked off the job on the day of dress rehearsal to do summer stock at the Carousel Theatre in Framingham, Massachusetts. After doing a Welch's Grape Juice commercial and the first L'eggs stockings commercial,... full article at wikipedia