Emile Ardolino - motion picture and television director - Obituary

Dance Magazine, Feb, 1994

Emile Ardolino. the movie the television director whose most recent film was George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, died of AIDS-related illness at his home in Los Angeles on November 20, 1993. He was fifty years old.

Born in New York City, Ardolino was educated at Queens College, studied dance with Matt Mattox, and worked briefly as in actor before turning to film. He became an editor, a director, and a producer of documentaries, industrial films and multimedia stage productions.

He won an Obie Award in 1969 for his films for the original production of Oh! Calcutta! ind created films for Joffrey Ballet's Astarte and New York City Opera's The Makropoulos Affair. He also designed the original multimedia concept for the Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar, edited several documentaries for PBS, and produced dance films commissioned by the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library for its Jerome Robbins Film Archive.

In 1975 he became one of the producers of the PBS television series "Dance in America," ultimately directing and producing twenty-eight programs. He won an Emmy Award for his direction of "Choreography by Balanchine IV" in the 1978-79 season and a Directors Guild of America Award for "The Spellbound Child" in the 1980-81 season.

At the invitation of Jacques d'Amboise he directed He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', an account of d'Amboise's National Dance Association which works with New York City schoolchildren, the film for which, among other honors, Ardolino won a 1983 Oscar for best documentary feature, two Emmys, and a Peabody Award.

Mainstream Hollywood success followed With the films Dirty Dancing, Chances Are, Three Men and a Little Lady, and Sister Act. Ardolino also directed television adaptations of three Joseph Papp Public Theater productions, The Dance and the Railroad, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Alice at the Palace. At his death he had just completed a television production of Gypsy, starring Bette Midler, which was telecast in December on CBS.