Michael Terrace (born Michael Santiago Gutierrez; December 31, 1926 in

Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

) is a retired ballroom and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, actor, dance consultant, and writer. His stage and subsequent dance career spans a total of 60 years, during which he's made innumerable contributions to ballroom dancing. Terrace played Bernardo in ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid- ...

'' with the national company and was picked out of 2,500 ballet dancers to be at the Metropolitan Opera House with the Bolshoi Ballet Company of Russia. Terrace met and married Elita Cleveland and formed the dance team Terrace & Elita. Some of the original "Mambo-niks", Michael and Elita, were regulars in the

Palladium Ballroom The Palladium Ballroom was a New York City night club. The US mambo craze that started in 1948 began at the Palladium Ballroom. On March 15, 1946, it opened at the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd Street.''New York Post'', March 14, 1946; ...

dance competitions and helped to bring the Mambo craze to mainstream America. They worked closely and often with legends such as

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz ...

Machito Machito (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. Ginell, Richard S. ''Biography''. Allmusic, 2011/ref> He w ...

Sammy Davis, Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internat ...

and many other stars of the 1950s and 1960s. Terrace is particularly associated with the film ''

Dirty Dancing ''Dirty Dancing'' is a 1987 American romantic drama dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. Starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, it tells the story of Frances "Baby" Housema ...

'' (1987). His stories of the formative years of the

mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particula ...

in the Catskills inspired

Eleanor Bergstein Eleanor Bergstein (born 1938) is an American writer, known for writing and co-producing '' Dirty Dancing'', a popular 1980s film based in large part on her own childhood. Life and career Bergstein was born in 1938 in the Brooklyn borough of N ...

's vision of lead character Johnny Castle (played by

Patrick Swayze Patrick Wayne Swayze (; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for playing distinctive lead roles, particularly romantic, tough, and comedic characters. He was also known for his media image and ...

)." 'E! True Hollywood Story': Dirty Dancing" Episode 2000 In his later years, he opened a dance studio in Englewood, NJ, was featured in the Bravo documentary "The Palladium: Where Mambo was King" , appeared in bit parts in feature films, and has written many stories about the Palladium.

References

1926 births American ballroom dancers Living people People from East Harlem American male dancers People from Fort Lee, New Jersey Mambo Palladium {{dance-bio-stub