Dorothy Williams - Dottie Hunt Kleeb - was born in East Texas and began to study dance at age 6. At her dance teacher's insightful advice, she studied, grew and left home when only 17. She was in store for a fabulous dance career, beginning with "The Starlight Operettas" Summer Musicals in Dallas, TX. She then traveled by train to New York City with friends in search of "dance" and landed an auditioned for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes where she danced under Russell Markert's direction from 1947-1949. And that was only the beginning.
Continuing to dance in many operettas, Dottie earned Asst. Dir. and she performed throughout the USA in night clubs and on USO tours.
She began to teach dancing shortly after marrying in 1949 and has dedicated her life to the education of young people in the Dance and Affiliated Arts.
Through the youth development programs of today, she has instructed all phases of pageantry on the local, state and national levels. She has been choreographer for many musicals including: The King and I, Oklahoma, Brigadoon, and The Sound Of Music. Always active in Community Theater, she played the fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof, and Liat in South Pacific.
Dottie organized and piloted the Tap/Jazz Dance Dept. at Kilgore Jr. College in 1977. Traveling with the International Educational Institute, she lead a Texas cast to the University of Exeter, in Exeter, England to study dance under her instruction at seminars, as well as rehearse and perform "Bye Bye Birdie" for local student audiences. While in England, she had her company train in ballet, jazz and modern classes at the London Dance Conservatory. Most recently, she has been a choreographer for The Longview Civic Opera performing "Carmen" and "The Merry Widow".
She has trained with much success, all or most of the dance instructors in her area.
Miss Dottie, as she is lovingly called, sets a marvelous example of what self-discipline and hard work can do for a soul.
Today, Dottie owns and operates her studio of (49 years) in Longview, TX, overseeing and teaching all phases of dance, gymnastics and twirling. She has 2 children and 5 grandchildren, all of whom dance!
She re-visited Radio City Music Hall last summer and performed with the Rockettes in the 75th anniversary BASH! - Christmas In August. (Aug. 7-10, 2001). Many of the girls made contact with friends they haven't seen in far too many years.
Please keep in touch!
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