Marge Champion

Marjorie Celeste "Marge" Champion (née Belcher; September 2, 1919 – October 21, 2020) was an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography in 1975.

Career
At a young age she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated movies. Snow White was modeled after Champion for the 1937 animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later she performed as an actress and dancer in movie musicals, and in 1957 had a TV show based on song and dance.

Champion has also done creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley.

Together as a dance team, the Champions performed in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s, including Show Boat (1951) and Everything I Have Is Yours (1952). MGM wanted the couple to remake Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, but only one, Lovely to Look At (1952), a remake of Roberta (1935), was completed.

Death
Champion turned 100 in September 2019. She died on October 21, 2020 in Los Angeles at the age of 101.

Other websites

 * http://www.valyermodancers.org/DanceCompany.html
 * Marge Champion performing Dancing in 1986 at Jacob's Pillow
 * Archival footage from Jacob's Pillow PillowTalk: Hippo in a Tutu featuring Marge Champion, 8/28/2010
 * http://www.valyermodancers.org/DanceCompany.html
 * Marge Champion performing Dancing in 1986 at Jacob's Pillow
 * Archival footage from Jacob's Pillow PillowTalk: Hippo in a Tutu featuring Marge Champion, 8/28/2010
 * Archival footage from Jacob's Pillow PillowTalk: Hippo in a Tutu featuring Marge Champion, 8/28/2010