Lynne Taylor-Corbett, the Tony Award-nominated choreographer of Broadway‘s Swing and Titanic who also left an indelible mark on Hollywood by guiding Kevin Bacon through his famed solo dance in the 1984 hit film , died of breast cancer January 12 at a hospital in Rockville Centre, N.Y., on Long Island. She was 78.
Her death was announced to The New York Times by her son Shaun Taylor-Corbett.
Accomplished in the worlds of ballet, theater and film, Lynne Aileen Taylor was born in Denver on December 2, 1946, moving to New York after high school to attend the School of American Ballet. Though her hopes for a career as a ballet dancer were short lived: She would later tell The New York Times, “I was never really suited to be a ballet dancer, but I had a gift for theatricality and movement.”
Her career as a choreographer, however, soon took off, and by the early 1980s she established herself with work for New York’s American Ballet Theater and the City Ballet. She received commissions from other dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
She made her Broadway debut in 1981 with Shakespeare’s Cabaret, returning in 1985 to choreograph The Boys of Winter.
One of her highest profile Broadway shows arrived in 1988 with the short-lived musical Chess. Taylor-Corbett would be back on Broadway in 1994, choreographing dance scenes for Sally Marr…And Her Escorts, a biographical play about Lenny Bruce’s mother starring Joan Rivers in the title role.
Among her more memorable works on Broadway came in 1997 with the big-budget musical Titanic and the Jackie Kennedy bio-musical Jackie.
Two years later, she both choreographed and directed the popular Broadway musical revue Swing!, a show that featured classic jazz-swing songs such “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” and “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree.” Taylor-Corbett was nominated for both her choreography and her direction of the popular production.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Kevin Bacon in “Footloose” (1984)
CBS via Getty Images
Through her Broadway career, Taylor-Corbett also worked steadily in Hollywood, beginning with 1984’s Footloose, which included one of the most popular dance scenes of the era, with star Kevin Bacon energetically moving to the film’s soon-to-be-hit title song written by Kenny Loggins. The much copied (and often parodied) dance sequence established Bacon as a star, and would led to Taylor-Corbett’s further work in films such as My Blue Heaven (1990), Vanilla Sky (2001) and Bewitched (2005).
Taylor-Corbett is survived by her son, as well as sisters Sharon Taylor Talbot, Kelly Taylor, Janny Murphy, Leslie Taylor and Kathleen Taylor.