Chita Rivera, Dynamic Tony Award–Winning Singer and Dancer, Dies at 91

Surprise!

While I knew about my father’s Puerto Rican heritage, I uncovered a secret on my mother’s side while researching my family history for the memoir: My maternal grandparents were mulatto, mixed-race descendants of the once enslaved. I wished I’d known earlier — it might have deepened my connection with my Black friends and colleagues, especially my onetime love Sammy Davis Jr.

The energizer Chita

I had tons of energy and two brothers to play with. We used to hang out with the neighborhood kids and ride bicycles, skate and sneak into movie theaters. There was a back alley, fences and a pear tree that I used to climb. I was very athletic and very energetic. Indoors, jumping from one sofa to another, I was destroying the furniture. Mother had to save her tables and chair, and knew I had to be channeled. She enrolled me in a local ballet school, and then at 16, I auditioned for George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. And this tall, blond, gorgeous dancer came running from the audition room screaming, “I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!” If she couldn’t, how could I? I was short, brown and nervous as hell, but my teacher told me, “Just stay in your own lane and look straight ahead.” And I got in. One step, one plié, led to another — and, ultimately, Broadway.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM CORBETT

Lucky woman

I was born at a very good time — the ’40s and ’50s were the golden age of Broadway musicals. It began for me in 1957, when I got cast as Anita, the Puerto Rican girl who sings “America” in West Side Story. It was a job but became something so much bigger, in part because that musical was ripped from the headlines. Somebody had just been killed in a playground down the street — the article was pinned to a note board as we entered the theater. This is your life, I thought. Then came big roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Bob Fosse’s Chicago and other musicals. Still, I didn’t win my first Tony until I starred in The Rink with Liza Minnelli in 1984. I’m still paying for all that jazz now. [Laughs, tapping her overworked knees.]

Dancing queen

I still prefer being called a dancer. I come from the chorus and the family that comes with being a part of the show. In rehearsal, you laid out your heart and soul from 10 to 6 daily. Dancers are very open people. What you see is what we are. We’re told what to do and we do it. And that’s the way it was with singing and acting, too, but I wouldn’t change being a dancer for anything in the world.

The roles that got away

I would be so selfish to have wanted any other roles because I’ve had so many great ones: Anita, Velma in Chicago, the title role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. I’m pretty satisfied, but [laughs] there are five Tonys out there that should have been mine!

PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM CORBETT

The Big 9-Oh

I just had a birthday, and it was a biggie. I can’t get over the number. Ninety! My daughter, Lisa, threw me a party at a replica 1920s speakeasy in Manhattan. It was amazing — but when I spied a celebratory banner with that huge number, I shivered. That’s when my polite side, my Chita side, came out: I let them keep those decorations up.

Power of positive thinking

Since I reached this age, I’m suddenly thinking about the time I have left. Thinking, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to leave. And that’s not good. I’m usually a very positive person. So now I’m making myself do things. Before I didn’t have to make myself do things — I just did them [laughs]. I can’t dance like I used to, but I sing, I act. I consider myself such a lucky person. The body might change, but the heart remains constant.