Dancer and choreographer Diana Baffa-Brill dies at 81
Diana Baffa-Brill – dancer and choreographer who assisted Onna White and later re-staged scores of productions of the classic production of Mame – has died in Los Angeles after a long illness, on 13 October 2024. She was 81.
Baffa-Brill was born on 23 July 1943 and raised in Long Island, NY. She began her career on Broadway at 18, in the musical, 13 Daughters. Her varied dancing career continued later on Broadway in the Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim musical Do I Hear A Waltz, as well as the Broadway musicals La Grosse Valise and Jerry Herman’s Mame (as Dance Captain) later assisting White on many productions.
She danced with the Bob DeVoy Trio, appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and was a June Taylor Dancer on the Jackie Gleason Show. She taught Broadway Jazz classes, and directed and choreographed all over the world, including in Israel, Hungary and Argentina.
For the numerous Mame productions and tours, she re-staged Onna White’s acclaimed choreography. She and director John Bowab said that they had done over 50 shows together. For the 1993 Broadway revival of Mame starring the original Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury, she re-produced the original show-stopping dance numbers. Bowab and Baffa-Brill were the organizers of the Mame 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Baffa-Brill directed or choreographed numerous other musicals around the US including Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, The Music Man, Damn Yankees, Singin’ in the Rain, Irma La Douce, Dames At Sea and Little Shop of Horrors. With friends, she had an Equity Theatre outside of Philadelphia called, “Places Please”, and was one of the founders of the Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance in NYC.
She is survived by her son Gregory Brill, her daughter Theorna Seraphine, and siblings Jacqueline Jones and Bill Brill.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
