Photo Flash: Broadway Gypsy Tea Dance Celebrates 2015 Tony Nominee Chita Rivera

BROADWAY GYPSY TEA DANCE recently gathered at the rooftop bar Top of the Strand at the Strand Hotel (33 West 37th Street) to celebrate Chita Rivera's 2015 Tony Award nomination, enlisting dancers from most of Broadway's shows. Those represented included The King & I, Aladdin, Kinky Boots, Something Rotten, Wicked, American in Paris, The Lion King and gypsies who danced with Rivera in her last Broadway show A Dancer's Life. Check out a look back below!

An accomplished and versatile actress/singer/dancer, Chita Rivera has won two Tony Awards as Best Leading Actress in a Musical and received seven additional Tony nominations. She recently concluded a successful run starring in the new Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood on Broadway. She starred in the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer's Life, a dazzling new musical celebrating her spectacular career, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Graciela Daniele. This summer she will re-create her starring role in The Visit, the new Kander/Ebb/McNally musical at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, which she also performed at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA and originally at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago in 2001. She also starred in the revival of the Broadway musical Nine with Antonio Banderas. She trained as a ballerina (from age 11) before receiving a scholarship to the American School of Ballet from legendary George Balanchine. Chita's first appearance (age 17) was as a principal dancer in Call Me Madam. Her electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of West Side Story (1957) brought her stardom, which she repeated in London. Her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink (Tony Award), Chicago, Jerry's Girls, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award), and the original Broadway casts of Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful. On tour: Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Call Me Madam, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, Can-Can with The Rockettes. Chita was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentBarack Obama in August, 2009. She received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, DC in December, 2002 and is the first Hispanic woman ever chosen to receive this award. In May, 2013, she was appointed to a special Kennedy Center Honors Advisory Committee. Chita's current solo CD is entitled And Now I Swing.

Photos by Timmy Blupe