NEED TO KNOW
- On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Anita Mann attended the 2025 Dancers In opposition to Most cancers Gala of the Stars, held at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles
- The annual profit featured an all-star lineup of stay performances and honorees, together with Mann
- On the occasion, Mann caught up with ipromiseyoumedia to debate the teachings she discovered beneath Lucille Ball’s mentorship
Anita Mann, an Emmy-winning choreographer, dancer and producer, is widely known for her dynamic contributions to tv and stage leisure.
At simply 18 years outdated, she danced on stage with Elvis Presley, and for six years she labored alongside comedy legend Lucille Ball on Right here’s Lucy, the hit sitcom that aired from 1968 to 1974.
Whereas serving to choreograph dance sequences for the present, Mann gained invaluable behind-the-scenes expertise that formed her future as a inventive chief.
On the Dancers In opposition to Most cancers’s 2025 Gala of the Stars, Mann tells ipromiseyoumedia about how their relationship got here to be. It began after she landed in Presley’s orbit, noting that she was working as an additional dancer in certainly one of his movies when she caught his eye.
Presley observed her dancing and, impressed by her expertise, she was referred to as over to fulfill with the choreographer. “I believed I used to be in hassle,” Mann admits.
“I did not know what I did unsuitable,” the 79-year-old provides. “However they mentioned they have been watching me dance and would I help on the following Elvis movie.”
That chance led to her continued work with Presley on his ‘68 Comeback Particular, a number of of his films and his Las Vegas exhibits. “I owe my profession actually, actually to him,” she tells ipromiseyoumedia solely.
Via the choreographer who labored with Presley, Mann was launched to Ball, who shortly turned her “mentor.”
“He was Lucille Ball’s choreographer and he or she mentored me for six years and taught me every part about directing,” she says. “Every thing, the right way to shoot, the right way to personal a studio.”
Above all else, she notes that Ball taught her to face by her decision-making.
“Crucial lesson I discovered [from her] was proper or unsuitable, be particular,” she explains. “I’d come into work, and I needed to be particular.”
“It wasn’t like, ‘Nicely, I do not know precisely what occurs…’ [but instead], ‘That is what we’re doing, Lucy. You are going to begin on this stage, on this queue and that is the place we’re going.'” she remembers.
“That was an excellent lesson,” she provides.
Working with Ball for six seasons on Right here’s Lucy, Mann discovered not solely the artwork of efficiency but additionally the deeper classes of directing, manufacturing and management that formed her future in leisure.
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Mann went on to choreograph for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and even labored along with his sister, Janet Jackson, when the singer was simply 8 years outdated.
On the Dancers In opposition to Most cancers’s 2025 Gala of the Stars, each Janet and Mann had been honored with awards.
The singer, 59, took residence the 2025 ICON of the 12 months Award, whereas Mann was offered with the Philanthropist of the 12 months award — marking a significant full-circle second in her storied profession.
“Tonight means a lot to me as a dancer and to be acknowledged as a philanthropist is every part that I work for and need to be in life, is a greater individual, however to make life higher for different individuals,” she tells ipromiseyoumedia.
“Every thing tonight is about how will we give it again?” she provides. “A few of my favourite dance companions have died of most cancers, and we’ve so many individuals affected by it.”
“And if we will add to the analysis and growth of what we will do, that is what tonight is admittedly all about.”
