Marjorie Celeste Champion (née Belcher; born September 2, 1919) is an
American dancer and actress. At 14, she was hired as a dance model for
Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress
and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a TV show based on song
and dance. She has also done creative choreography for liturgy, and
served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries,
The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio
Valley.She became a centenarian in September 2019.Champion was born on
September 2, 1919, in Los Angeles, California, to Hollywood dance
director Ernest Belcher and his wife, Gladys Lee Baskette (née
Rosenberg). She had an older half sister, Lina Basquette, who already
was acting in silent films at the age of twelve. Lina was the daughter
of her mother's first husband, Frank Baskette, who had committed
suicide.Marjorie began dancing at an early age as her sister had done.
She began dancing as a child under the instruction of her father,
Ernest Belcher, a noted Hollywood ballet coach who trained Shirley
Temple, Cyd Charisse, and Gwen Verdon. She studied exclusively with
her father from age five until she left for New York. She credits her
good health and long career to her father's teaching principles:
careful, strict progression of activity, emphasis on correct
alignment, precise placement of body, attention to detail and to the
totality of dynamics and phrasing. Her first dance partner was Louis
Hightower. In 1930, she made her debut in the Hollywood Bowl at age 11
in the ballet "Carnival in Venice". By age twelve, she became a ballet
instructor at her father's studio. Marge played Tina in the Hollywood
High School operetta The Red Mill. She also sang in the Hollywood High
School Girls' Senior Glee Club and graduated in 1936. She was hired by
The Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for their animated film Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Her movements were copied to
enhance the realism of the animated Snow White figure. For one scene
Belcher served as model while wrapped in baggy overcoat for two dwarfs
at once, when for the "Silly Song" dance, Dopey gets on Sneezy's
shoulder to dance with Snow White. Belcher later modeled for
characters in other animated films: the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940)
and Hyacinth Hippo in the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia, a
ballet parody that she also helped choreograph. She even recalls doing
some modeling for Mr.Stork in Dumbo. When working with Disney on Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs, Champion recalls "the animators couldn't
take a young girl out of themselves, they couldn't take the prints out
of themselves".
American dancer and actress. At 14, she was hired as a dance model for
Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress
and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a TV show based on song
and dance. She has also done creative choreography for liturgy, and
served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries,
The Awakening Land, set in the late 18th century in the Ohio
Valley.She became a centenarian in September 2019.Champion was born on
September 2, 1919, in Los Angeles, California, to Hollywood dance
director Ernest Belcher and his wife, Gladys Lee Baskette (née
Rosenberg). She had an older half sister, Lina Basquette, who already
was acting in silent films at the age of twelve. Lina was the daughter
of her mother's first husband, Frank Baskette, who had committed
suicide.Marjorie began dancing at an early age as her sister had done.
She began dancing as a child under the instruction of her father,
Ernest Belcher, a noted Hollywood ballet coach who trained Shirley
Temple, Cyd Charisse, and Gwen Verdon. She studied exclusively with
her father from age five until she left for New York. She credits her
good health and long career to her father's teaching principles:
careful, strict progression of activity, emphasis on correct
alignment, precise placement of body, attention to detail and to the
totality of dynamics and phrasing. Her first dance partner was Louis
Hightower. In 1930, she made her debut in the Hollywood Bowl at age 11
in the ballet "Carnival in Venice". By age twelve, she became a ballet
instructor at her father's studio. Marge played Tina in the Hollywood
High School operetta The Red Mill. She also sang in the Hollywood High
School Girls' Senior Glee Club and graduated in 1936. She was hired by
The Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for their animated film Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Her movements were copied to
enhance the realism of the animated Snow White figure. For one scene
Belcher served as model while wrapped in baggy overcoat for two dwarfs
at once, when for the "Silly Song" dance, Dopey gets on Sneezy's
shoulder to dance with Snow White. Belcher later modeled for
characters in other animated films: the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio (1940)
and Hyacinth Hippo in the Dance of the Hours segment of Fantasia, a
ballet parody that she also helped choreograph. She even recalls doing
some modeling for Mr.Stork in Dumbo. When working with Disney on Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs, Champion recalls "the animators couldn't
take a young girl out of themselves, they couldn't take the prints out
of themselves".
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