Website Ampossibility.com Residence Toronto, Canada | Name David Connolly | |
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Born 1968 Sydney, Nova Scotia | ||
David W. Connolly (born 1968 in Sydney, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian choreographer, director, producer, and actor. Despite using prosthetic legs since childhood, he acted and danced in a Broadway musical in his youth, and later began choreographing events and television shows such as the Miss America Pageant and The Doodlebops. He has also choreographed films such as Bollywood, Hollywood, and appeared as a wedding planner for five years on Rich Bride Poor Bride. In 1999 the Premier of Ontario awarded him Canada's Award of Excellence, and he has worked on fundraisers such as Fashion Cares.
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Early life
David Hodgson (later named David Connolly) was born in 1968 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. When he was born with a severe deformity of the legs, his mother Maureen Connolly took him to the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children (now called Shriners Hospitals for Children) in Montreal, Canada. Both his legs were amputated below the knee, with the hopes that Connolly would be able to walk without a limp on two artificial legs. He spent his first years in the hospital, becoming an outpatient at age five. His family moved to Waterloo, Ontario when he was eight years old.
Connolly sang in school choirs as a child, and became interested in dancing after seeing the play A Chorus Line. Connolly has stated that "I had no flexibility in my ankles, my feet were dead bolted on, but I could learn the steps." In high school he sang and danced in local musicals and was also a member of Project People, a Kitchener-Waterloo performance troupe. As a teenager he was accepted into the musical-theatre program at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, concealing his disability. Says Connolly about his audition: "I think I was so happy doing what I loved, that no one noticed my feet. As a director, I try to get my actors to that same state of bliss - the joy of just being."
Acting
After graduating from Sheridan at age 19, Connolly was immediately cast in a revival of the musical Shenandoah, which started in Toronto before moving to Broadway in New York City. Shortly afterwards he was cast in the 1992 Stratford Shakespeare Festival production of HMS Pinafore. That performance earned him a Tyrone Guthrie Award Scholarship, which he used to travel back to New York and study theater, taking private voice lessons and learning acting at Uta Hagen's HB Studios.
He worked with directors and choreographers such as Alan Lund, Brian MacDonald, Brian Foley, Tibor Feheregyhazi, Alex Mustakas, and Caroline Smith. Notable roles have included Tommy in Brigadoon, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, and The Prince in The Fairy's Tale.
Choreography, production
Connolly directed and choreographed seven musicals at the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts School, and in 1995 moved to Los Angeles, where he spent seven years working as an associate producer/choreographer to producer Anita Mann. Projects included serving as an associate and writer for the 1997 Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, and he also spent three years as an associate choreographer for the Miss America Pageant. This included the 77th rendition televised on September 13, 1997. During his years of involvement the pageant earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography.
He began working again in Toronto after being hired as associate choreographer to Miranda Garrison for the mini-series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Shortly afterwards he choreographed the Deepa Mehta film Bollywood, Hollywood, and The Republic of Love, continuing to direct and choreograph musicals, commercials, and music videos in both the United States and Canada. He helped cast the CBC children's show The Doodlebops, serving as the show's only choreographer and occasionally directing episodes.
He has frequently worked for the CBC on other projects, and was a contributing producer on both The Canadian Country Music Awards and the special Home for the Holidays on CCMA. For the television series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Connolly choreographed the opening number of each episode and coached contestants. He was choreographer for A Season of Song: The Canadian Tenors and Friends, which featured The Tenors and artists such as David Foster, Paul Anka, Jackie Evancho, Charice and Justin Bieber.
Apart from film, Connolly continues to be involved with musical theater. About the play Plaid Tidings in 2008, The Chronicle Herald reported that "Connolly's superlative inventiveness is the kind that inspired collaboration from his virtuosic cast." In a review of Connolly's rendition of Miss Saigon, the Exeter Times Advocate stated "David Connolly has met and exceeded the challenge of producing an emotional, entertaining, and heart-wrenching musical..." He is the choreographer of the musical version of The First Wives Club, set to open at The Oriental Theatre in Chicago in February, 2015 and on Broadway later that year.
Business
Connolly previously operated a wedding planning business, and spent five years planning weddings for the Slice/WeTV reality television show Rich Bride Poor Bride. He was also a contributing author to the book Rich Bride Poor Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide. He operated an event production company called theideashop, which produced for clients such as SONY, Microsoft, and Ford.
Board memberships, teaching
Connolly has regularly returned to Sheridan College to teach master classes and choreograph and direct shows, and he is a judge at the Can-Am International show choir competition for Show Choir Canada. He is on the Board of Directors at the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts.
Connolly has regularly returned to Sheridan College to teach master classes and choreograph and direct shows, and in 2000, he became an Adjunct Professor of Music Theatre at Sheridan College. He is a judge at the Can-Am International show choir competition for Show Choir Canada, and on the Board of Directors at the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts.
In 1999 the Premier of Ontario awarded him Canada's Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the field of applied arts and community service. He is an official ambassador for The Shriner's Hospitals for Children, and in February 2000 his solo album If You Believe debuted, with proceeds donated to the hospital. Connolly periodically choreographs or produces charity events as well. He choreographed the Toronto's Fashion Cares AIDS fundraising show for twelve years, creating production numbers for people such as kd lang, Sarah Brightman, Jennifer Holiday, and Katy Perry.