PROFILE
The Miguel Delgado Dance Foundation is inspired by the work of Miguel Delgado, a product of Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles, California. Miguel's untimely death on November 4, 1998 at the age of 46 left a void for his friends, the theatre and film world and in the Chicano arts community that he so loved.
Mr. Delgado was fierce on the Mark Taper Forum stage in Luis Valdez's "Zoot Suit." He tranferred with the production to the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood, went to Broadway, then shot the film. In each version he never lost his fire. Miguel belonged on the stae but chose for most of his all-too-short career to remain hehind the scenes as a director, choreographer and coach.
His dance card was always filled with either a film or theatre project that demanded his devoted attention. From Linda Ronstadt on a video shoot to Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2," he coached the ladies on their suave moves or their Mexican Spanish. He seduced Jimmy Smits and Elpidia Carrillo to move together like two thirsty bodies drinking each other up in Gregory Nava's "Mi Familia." The dance sequences in "La Bamba" were pure Delgado. He danced with a mischevious twinkle in his eye as he mysteriously guided Cheech Marin off a bus in "Born in East L.A.."
As a youth he was a leader in his community, and through hard work and telent was one of the first Mexican-American choreographers to work in the film industry. In the early years he had his own folklorico dance company, Teatro Mexicano de Danza. Miguel broke the rules in his search for a Chicano dance form, and this made him a modernist in the traditional folklorico dance world.