Gwen Verdon (1925-2000)
Filed under the name Gwen · March 8, 2026
I'll confess up front that modern dancing isn't my particular cup of tea, but I know talent and hard work when I read about it, and this Broadway dancer had both in spades, winning Tony after Tony and lighting up the stage in a way people still talk about. It reminds me of a girl I taught back in the seventies, quiet as a mouse at her desk but the second she got up to perform in the school pageant, she turned into somebody else entirely — all that energy had just been waiting for the right stage. My late husband Earl used to say some folks are born to be looked at, and it isn't vanity, it's just where their gift happens to sit. This performer clearly had that kind of electricity, the kind you can't teach in any classroom, only recognize when it walks through your door. I imagine there's comfort in finding, early, exactly what you were built to do, and precious few of us are lucky enough to get that clear an answer.