Lawrence Leritz

Lawrence Leritz is well known as dancer, singer, actor, fitness expert and choreographer. Born Sept. 26th, 1962 in Alton, Illinois, Lawrence made his stage debut in the childrens chorus of the World Stage Premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "State Fair" at the St. Louis Muny, starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, was directed by James Hammerstein, supervised by Richard Rodgers and choreographed by Tommy Tune.

Lawrence soon moved to NYC on scholarships to the Harkness, Joffrey and New York City Ballets. Lawrence was quicked invited to join many world renowned dance companies, working with the Who's Who of international dance choreographers: George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Robert Joffrey, Ruth Page, John Neumeier and Sir Frederick Ashton, with such major dance companies as The New York City Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Israel's Bat Dor Dance Company, Paris Opera and as guest artist throughout the world, including Placido Domingo's Los Angeles Music Center Opera.

Lawrence also starred on Broadway in the Jerome Robbin's revival of "Fiddler On The Roof," "Fonteyn & Nureyev On Broadway" and "American Dance Machine". Lawrence Leritz has also acted in many feature films including the 2008 Golden Globe Best Film nominee, Julie Taymor's musical "Across The Universe" featuring the Beatles song catalog, "Alvin Ailey Stories", a documentary about the legendary choreographer, as the groom in the hilarious wedding scene in the feature film comedy, "Dummy" starring Adrien Brody. Other film roles include the comedy hit "Easy Money" with Rodney Dangerfield & the HBO's feature film "Stag" which features an ensemble cast including Ben Gazzara, Andrew McCarthy, Taylor Dayne, Mario Van Peebles and Jerry Stiller. Leritz's television roles include NBC's Saturday Night Live, CBS's Capitol, ABC's All My Children, talk shows including The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Maury Povich, CNN's Show Biz Today & ESPN's American Muscle Magazine and numerous commercials.

Lawrence also produces for stage and television, including the annual television event, Day Of Compassion, for which Time Magazine honored Leritz as their Local Hero 1996 for his work. Most recently, Lawrence Leritz was the producer and choreographer of the long running Off-Broadway smash hit, "Boobs! The Musical," which received unanimous rave reviews from all the major New York critics during the 2003-2004 season. Lawrence won the 2005 New Orlean's Big Easy Award & Ambie Award, Wichita's 2006 Teall Award and was nominated for the 2004 Mac Awards for Best Musical Revue for "Boobs! The Musical".

Leritz is also the star of the current best selling exercise DVD, Total Stretch! With Lawrence Leritz and the Spectrum Records recording artist of the #1 dance hit single "Crank It Up". Leritz recently headlined in Las Vegas at The Legendary Stardust Hotel in August 2006 for the ex-Playboy Bunnies Reunion. Also in 2006, Lawrence had the honor of being included in Harvard University's The George Balanchine Collection of The New York City Ballet, including Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library & The Harvard College Library. Mr. Leritz also appears in Who's Who in America.

Site: www.LawrenceLeritz.com