Birch, Patricia (c. 1930–)
Birch, Patricia (c. 1930–)
American theatrical choreographer and dancer. Name variations: Pat Birch. Born c. 1930 in Scarsdale, NY.
Joined Martha Graham Company (1950) and was featured in Letter to the World (1954) and Seraphic Dialogues (1954); served as rehearsal director for the company for many years; danced in Choreographers' Workshop recital in Eleanor King's Brandenburg No. 2 (1950), and continued to work in the theater thereafter; earned 1st choreographic credit for Carefree Tree, at Phoenix Theater (1956); on Broadway, choreographed acclaimed musical numbers for Grease (1972), Pacific Overtures (1976), Zoot Suit (1979), Anna Karenina (1992) and Band in Berlin (1999), and was nominated for 5 Tony awards for Best Choreography, including for Grease, Over Here! and Parade; also choreographed You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (1967), Up Eden (1968), the tango sequence in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Bread and Circus (1980), and Gilda Radner—Live from New York (1980); for film, choreographed for Roseland (1977), A Little Night Music (1977), Grease (1978), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (1979), Big (1988), Stella (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), The First Wives Club (1996) and The Human Stain (2003).