Last updated September, 5, 2025

Giglio Theatre Dance Players, 1950s – 1972

 and

Theatre School of Dance, 1945 – 1972

Teachers, Directors, Choreographers: Giovanni and Henriette Giglio

I’m seeking information through newspaper articles, programs, photographs, and personal memory stories for a history project on the Giglio dancers and school.  I need names, dates, places, and sources please.

This was a major dance school in Seattle beginning in the 1940s, established in the Green Lake District.  It was founded by Giovanni Giglio and Henriette Hansen who later became Mr. and Mrs.  They also founded the Theatre Dance Players Company in the 1950s, which performed in many local events sponsored by the Green Lake Chamber of Commerce (Christmas shows, Seafair activities, and open houses at the school). 

The Theatre Dance Players also performed in classical concerts, under the musical direction of Denton Rossell, with choreography by the Giglios.  This dance troupe also performed in local musical and opera productions (Seattle Civic Opera and Seattle Opera on Wheels); and in live televised original ballets on KCTS (channel 9 in Seattle, e.g. The White Dove Ballet & the Rhapsody in Blue Ballet).  Giglio dancers performed in benefits through fraternal organizations.  And these were the dancers who performed with the Jose Greco Show when he would bring his dance company to Seattle.

A number of Giglio dancers performed individually with Seattle Opera, in local musical theatre productions, night club revues, and northwest television appearances.  Some Giglio dancers had professional careers in other parts of the country and other parts of the world: e.g. NY’s Radio City Hall ballet troupe, Broadway musicals, Las Vegas, and also Europe and Asia.  The Giglio company dancers were trained and experienced in various dance arts: classical, musical theatre, jazz and flamenco.

The Giglios moved to Spain about 1972 at the request of Jose Greco who was a world famous flamenco dancer.  He wanted Mr. Giglio to teach for him there.  Jose Greco’s gain was Seattle’s loss.

Thus far my research has included The Green Lake Public Library and Downtown Central Library; the Green Lake Chamber of Commerce (no longer formally organized); The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI); the Seattle Times index of newspaper articles covering the years that the Giglios were here.  I have also posted to Nextdoor – a web site covering a number of north Seattle neighborhoods including Green Lake. 

I was surprised to find a little information on the Giglios on ancestry.com and more that was sent to me by a volunteer with this web site (You might need to log in to ancestry.com for access to this.) https://www.ancestry.com/boards/localities.northam.usa.states.washington.counties.king/7545.1/mb.ashx 

The following book contains a photo of the Giglio school and some information: Seattle’s Music Venues, book by Jolie Dawn Bergman  p.72

https://books.google.com/books?id=zgw7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=giovanni+giglio++theatre+school+of+dance&source=bl&ots=irCk3h5uyl&sig=Gn3Zaf7MvOkaTFs6I1seVUVFxas&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5x9L098fYAhUC94MKHfSIAqYQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=giovanni%20giglio%20%20theatre%20school%20of%20dance&f=false

Sadly, here are a few obituaries for past members of the Giglio Theatre Dance Players 

Betsy Haug: Dancer, choreographer, master teacher
“Betsy's performing career ranged from Broadway (Dance Captain in Promises, Promises) to ballet (two shows as ballet soloist at Radio City Music Hall) to television (Kraft Music Hall, Tony Awards, Ed Sullivan Show) and the national company of West Side Story. Betsy later became an international choreographer and master-teacher in New York, London, Tokyo, Rome, Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City and Toronto for (among others) Peter Allen, Joel Grey Gloria Gaynor and Liza Minnelli. Betsy also opened her own dance studio in New York, becoming one of Manhattan's most popular jazz dance teachers.”
https://obituaries.seattletimes.com/obituary/elizabeth-ogden-1083757404

obit: Published by The Daily Record on Nov. 11, 2021

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailyrecordnews/name/elizabeth-ogden-obituary?id=31474107

Gregory Steven King: Danced with Joffrey Ballet, Royal Ballet of Canada; understudy for Rudolph Nureyev, teacher

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/seattletimes/name/gregory-king-obituary?id=15766322

http://www.crookssecondlinekw.com/honorees-bios/2017/1/11/honoring-gregory-steven-king

https://www.google.com/search?q=gregory+steven+king+ballet+dancer+youtube&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS779US779&oq=gregory+steven+king++ballet+dancer+++youtube&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.12664j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8473b196,vid:-dLY7XiTmH8,st:0 

John F. ‘Jackie’ Davis: Professional skater with Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice

interview with Davis file:///C:/Users/Margie/Downloads/Richmond_Times_Dispatch_1977-10-04_24%202%20(3).pdf

obit sent to me by a person who knew him; Jackie died on 11/05/1989 

Mary Flanagan: Taught dance for the Giglios in the school’s early years

obit, Nov 5, 2005

 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=mary-b-flanagan&pid=15667919

 

Cleo Lee King: Mrs. Giglio’s daughter who taught for the Giglios
Seattle Times, Dec 25, 1949 p.25 Cleo Lee, who studied with dancer, Ruth St. Dennis, to perform in a Christmas show

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezproxy.spl.org/apps/news/document-view?hlterms=giovanni%3B%20giglio&p=WORLDNEWS&pedirect=true&docref=image/v2%3A127D718D1E33F961%40EANX-NB-12AF4BF1054E7B5F%402433276-12AF49EDF7358238%4024-12AF49EDF7358238%40

obit, died Aug 3, 2002 Seattle

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/seattletimes/name/cleo-king-obituary?id=29552379

Ed Cruver: Lead dancer with Theatre Dance Players, jazz pianist

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2023/08/obituary-ed-cruver-1938-2023.html

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2020/06/a-local-author-is-seeking-help-giglio.html

And the obituary below is for one of our nation's truly great dance teachers and choreographers.  I still remember Betsy Haug, a professional Giglio dancer (see her obit above) in one of her return visits to Seattle, telling a few of the dancers, "You'd better appreciate this man while you've still got him because you can't get better training than this anywhere at any price, and in New York you'd have to go to half a dozen different teachers to get as good a training as you're getting from this one man; and it would cost you a fortune."  If this is not a verbatim quote it is close enough. 

This obituary for Giovanni Giglio is from the Post Intelligencer July 18, 2,000, p.14

 

And Ancestry.com gives this and additional information on Giovanni Giglio posted to “Message Boards”

Giovanni Giglio

Last Residence: 93906 Salinas, Monterey, California, USA 
Born: 6 Sep 1916 
Died: 29 Jun 2000 
https://www.ancestry.com/boards/localities.northam.usa.states.washington.counties.king/7545.1 

Find a Grave shows that Henriette Giglio died in 1998 at Salinas, Monterey County, California.   Both she and Giovanni were buried at the Garden of Memories cemetery in Salinas.  https://www.fingrave.com/memorial/216525921/henriette-giglio

 

Any contacts and whereabouts of other Giglio dancers would be much appreciated.  This could possibly develop into a book.

Marjorie Rhodes

Seattle Historian and former Giglio dancer

marjoriesbooks@gmail.com