Felisa Vanoff

Felisa Vanoff (born Phyllis Elizabeth Caputo; June 11, 1925 – May 29, 2014) was an American dancer, choreographer, producer, and philanthropist.

Phyllis Elizabeth Caputo was born on June 11, 1925, in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.^[1][2][3] Her father, Eugene Caputo, was a Pennsylvania State Representative, and her mother, Velma Lindway, was an artist.^[1][2][4]

Shortly after she graduated from high school, she moved from Pennsylvania to Manhattan. There she lived at a boarding house and studied with Vincenzo Celli of the Ballet Russe.^[2][3][5] She then traveled to Mexico City for eighteen months of training with Jose Fernandez, learning flamenco and other Spanish dances.^[1][5]

During World War II, Vanoff performed in United Service Organizations Camp Shows in the Pacific, touring the Philippines, Korea, and Japan. By the end of the war she had earned a captaincy in the United States Army.^[1][2][3] Returning to New York City, she became the lead dancer in Charles Weidman's Dance Theatre.^[1][2] Later, she was featured on the Fred Waring and Billy Rose television programs.^[1][2]

In 1948, she became the first woman choreographer for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, a dramatic student society at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[1][5] The following year, she joined the New York City Opera as a lead dancer, appearing in productions like Carmen and Don Giovanni; she was also the company's assistant choreographer.^[1][2] In 1953, she joined the John Butler Dance Theatre where she spent two years as lead dancer, often performing alongside Glen Tetley.^[1][2] In 1987, she oversaw the Joffrey Ballet's recreation of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.^[1][2] She won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1994 for her co-produced musical City of Angels.^[1][2]

Other choreographic roles included the musical Carousel, which starred Bambi Linn and Rod Alexander;^[1] Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows;^[1][2] and Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas in Salzburg.^[1][6] With her husband, Nick Vanoff, she also choreographed numerous Kennedy Center Honors shows.^[1]

With her husband, she co-founded the Vanoff Family Foundation, a philanthropic foundation headquartered in Hollywood, California, in 1984.^[7] Vanoff later worked with Gordon Davidson to set up an annual charity dinner known as Salon at the Taper,^[1][2] the proceeds of which went to Nick's Tix, a philanthropic organization providing access to Los Angeles Music Center concerts for low-income groups like the handicapped, the elderly, and young people.^[1][2]

As a member of the board of directors of the Joffrey Ballet, Vanoff was credited as a driving force in its move to Los Angeles.^[1][2] She also helped organize fundraising events for the Joffrey Ballet, known as "Patron Nights", with interior designer Patti Skouras.^[8] Additionally, she served on the Board of Directors of Colleagues,^[1] the Heinz Awards,^[5] and the Blue Ribbon of the Los Angeles Music Center.^[2] She took part in the Great Wagon Days Duck Race, an annual fundraising event organized by the Ketchum/Sun Valley Rotary Club in Rotary Park, a public park in Ketchum, Idaho.^[9] She also donated to the St Luke's Wood River Medical Center in Ketchum, Idaho.^[10]

Vanoff was a donor to the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, a summer festival in Sun Valley, Idaho.^[11] She was also a "Bronze Sponsor" of the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce.^[12]

She met her husband, Nick Vanoff (1929-1991), when both were dancers in the New York City Opera in the 1950s.^[2][13] They had two sons, Nicholas Jr. and Flavio.^[1][13] They resided in Beverly Hills, California, and also owned an 8,500-square-foot house in Malibu, once rented by Edgar Bronfman Jr., which she sold to Peter O'Malley in 2000.^[3][14] The Vanoff Black Box Theater at the Brooks School, a private boarding school in North Andover, Massachusetts from which their son Nicholas Jr. graduated in 1980, is named after her and her husband.^[15]

She died of cancer on May 29, 2014, at her private residence in Beverly Hills at the age of eighty-nine.^[1] She was buried in Sun Valley, Idaho, her favorite winter skiing resort.^[1][2][5]

• Felisa Vanoff at IMDb