By 1955, the busiest choreographer in the ballet business was a lean 34-year-old Mississippian named John Butler, who has designed and directed the dancing of hos won troupe on such diverse television programs as the NBC Opera Theater, The Kate Smith Show, Camera Three and Adventure. He has done thse, and many others, because he was the first to learn that the difference between a TV studio and a theater's stage can be turned to a dancer's advantage.
Working with seldom more than 16 dancers, because he believes no viewer's screen can hold more, Butler compensates for the loss of lavish spectacle by substituting minute gestures. Played close up to the camera, they achieve an expressiveness that would be lost in a theater. But spectacles are not beyond Butler. He once set the choreography for Ice Capades.
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