Donna McKechnie

Donna McKechnie is an American musical theater dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, Cassie from the musical A Chorus Line, for which she earned the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1976. She is also known for playing Amanda HarrisOlivia Corey on the Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows from 1969 to 1970.

McKechnie was born in 1942 in Pontiac, Michigan, the daughter of Donald Bruce McKechnie and Carolyn Johnson. She began ballet classes at age five. Her earliest influence was the classic British ballet film The Red Shoes , which prompted her, at age eight, to plan a career as a ballerina. She studied for many years at the Rose Marie Floyd School of Dance in Royal Oak. Despite her parents strong misgivings, she moved to New York City when she was 17. Rejected after an audition for the American Ballet Theatre, she found employment in the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall but walked off the job on the day of dress rehearsal to do summer stock at the Carousel Theatre in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Source: Wikipedia