Bio

Ginger Thatcher is Associate Choreographer/Assistant Director  for the new musical, Little Dancer, formerly known as Marie!, with five time Tony Award winner, Susan Stroman,  Director/Choreographer. Ginger is also currently Rehearsal Director for Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Her work has been described as “dynamic,  finding nuanced  rhythms,  New York Post, “passionate and groovy dancing,”  New York Times, and  “Lush, passionate, , intricately designed, and highly theatrical, which brought to mind the work of Jerome Robbins,”  News-Tribune. Most recently she choreographed a production of Oklahoma! for Ogunquit Playhouse, (Fred Hanson, Director,) which was nominated for Best Choreography for 2018. She has been part of the creative process for multiple works for American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Norwegian National Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.  She has self-produced her own critically acclaimed evenings of work at Lincoln Center and was co-founding director of New Steps Choreography Project in Cleveland, OH, for which she received an Achievement in the Arts Nomination. .

Ginger has choreographed over 30 works for theatre, film, TV, concert dance and opera. A former Principal dancer with Cleveland Ballet, she joined the Lar Lubovitch Dance Co. in NYC,  in 1990 performing Nationally and  Inter-nationally until 1994. 

Broadway Credits as Associate/ Resident Choreographer: The Red Shoes, Lar Lubovitch, Choreographer, Carousel, Nick Hytner, Dir., Kenneth McMillan, Choreographer,  Big, Mike Ockrent, Dir., Susan Stroman, Choreographer, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, A Year with Frog and Toad, David Petrarca, Dir., Danny Peltzig, Choreographer, and   Oklahoma! Trevor Nunn, Dir., Susan Stroman, Choreographer.

Regional Choreography Credits: (Theatre): Oklahoma! (National Tour), Ogunquit Playhouse, and  St Louis MUNY. Maury Yeston’s Han Christian Anderson, and  Swing!, (Director/ Choreographer,) Maine State Music Theater, Ogunquit Playhouse, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Two River Theatre Co. Big, (Gateway Playhouse), and productions with Amas Musical Theatre, Jean Cocteau Rep, NYC Shakespeare Project, Juilliard Drama, Tex/Arts, Austin TX, Cleveland Playhouse, Glimmerglass Opera, Cleveland Opera and Phoenix Theatre Ensemble,. 

Ginger’s Classical/Contemporary Choreography Credits include full length and repertory works created for Verb Ballets, Oregon Ballet Theater, Louisville Ballet, Sarasota Ballet (Triple Circle Choreographer Award), Minnesota Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Ballet NY, Virginia Ballet Theatre, Eisenhower Dance Theatre, New Jersey Ballet, Dancing Wheels, and Virginia Ballet International.   

Ginger has also worked as Associate/ Assistant on PBS’s Dance in America: Othello, (ABT, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Norwegian Nat’l Ballet); The Red Shoes,  (ABT, National Ballet of Canada); A Brahms Symphony, (ABT); and Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, Berlin, all with Lar Lubovitch.  And with Susan Stroman: Take Five, More or Less,  (Pacific Northwest Ballet), But Not For Me,  (Martha Graham Dance Company), For the Love of Duke, (New York City Ballet)  She has staged many works for Lar Lubovitch Internationally.

Teaching credits: Ginger has been the Rehearsal Director, and Company Teacher for Complexions Dance Company,  Norweigian National Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater,  and the Broadway Shows, Carousel,  and Swan Lake. She is on the faculty of Rioult Dance Company, Ballet Academy East, Steps on Broadway, and has previously been on the faculty of PeriDance, Manhattan School of Music,  Joffrey Ballet School, NYC,  Rutgers University, University of Michigan ( as Artist in Residence,) and was company director for Oakland University Dance Ensemble.

Musical Theatre Credits as Dancer/Actress: Oklahoma, (Broadway, preforming Aunt Eller,) Maury Yeston’s Phantom, Peter Pan, My Fair Lady, (All with Paper Mill Playhouse,)  Show Boat, West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, Evita, and  Woman of the Year, with Kenley Players and Cleveland Opera.

Ginger  is a proud member of AEA, SAG and SDC Unions.