Choreographer
He, New York Yankees World Series winning pitcher Ron Guidry , and New England Patriots Super Bowl winning running back Kevin Faulk are all from Carencro, Louisiana.
Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, as a husband and wife (duo) team, choreographed television production numbers on "The Hollywood Palace" television musical variety series from 1964 through 1970. Nick Vanoff admired their creativity and originality in dancing styles, and repeatedly brought the team in for specialty numbers.
Marc Breaux, an American choreographer and occasional television-film director, is best known for his work on musical television and films of the 1960s and 1970s. Most of his well known work was in collaboration with Dee Dee Wood to whom he was married for many years. Much of Breauxs best recognized work was also a collaboration with the songwriting Sherman Brothers and with Disney Films. In 1949 Marc appeared on Broadway in "Kiss Me, Kate" at the New Century Theatre in New York City. In 1958 he appeared in "Lil Abner" at the Saint James Theatre, also in New York City. Mark Breaux with Dee Dee Wood choreographed the Broadway musical "Do-Re-Mi" (1960-1962).
Performing in 1951, Marc Breaux appeared on "The Fred Waring Show" as a choreographer-dancer on CBS television "Salute to the American Indian"; Marc repeated choreographing and dancing on the 1952 "Fred Waring Show" CBS TV series segment "Jungle Drums".
Studied dance in university before serving as a Navy Pilot during World War II.
Breaux and Wood divorced and worked separately. Dee Dee moved to Mesa, Arizona with the children while Marc remained in Los Angeles. After Marc had a heart attack, with his recovery, Nick Vanoff offered Marc a new career, working with his Sunset Gower Studios post production house as an editor. Marc retiring to Palm Springs, he later re-joined the family in Arizona.
Robert Wise and Marc Breaux, on their initial "The Sound of Music" Salzburg location survey of the citys streets and squares, walking, discussing, planning the cutting of shots for each tracking dance sequence involving Maria and the Von Trapp children. Marc, busy with creating the motivation for the dance sequences were followed on the sidewalk by Robert Wise, while Marc planned each choreographed sequence out in the city street traffic lanes. The congested city traffic didnt stop Marc from sailing out into the traffic patterns planning each dance routine. After the films principle photography in Salzburg had finished, the weather was overcast, the country side shrouded in fog and mist, and heavy daily rain, prevented the opening hill top shot-set-up. The company remained in their hotels waiting for the final sequence filming. Fox management gave the company departure travel orders. The very last day, as Robert Wise tells, the sky opened with a bright glorious sunny morning. The entire company raced to the hill top, with the helicopter loaded with camera and crew, setting up the films opening sequence of aerial shots, finally coming upon Julie Andrews spinning around on a hill top before breaking into the title song. To get the timing right, Breaux was hidden in nearby bushes. He watched the helicopter coming over the mountains and at the right moment he had a bullhorn, yelled to Julie Andrews, "OK, Julie! Turn!".
Marc studied dance at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette before serving in the Navy as a pilot during World War II. After the war he became a pre-med student, but that changed when he went to a friends modern dance class in New York City taught by famed choreographers Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. The instructors saw him observing and approached him at the end of the class. Asking Breaux "Do you think you can do that?" Marc replied, "Oh yes, no problem." Breaux in relating the experience stated "I was very cocky".
When Dick Van Dyke got the role of Bert in the 1964 movie musical "Mary Poppins," Walt Disney asked him if had a recommendation for a choreographer. Van Dyke recalled working with the team Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood, who had created a number for NBCs "The Jack Benny Show." "Im not really a dancer," Van Dyke said. "I could move a little and I was what you call an eccentric dancer - loose limbed and light on my feet. But they took what I could do and made the most of it. I was just thrilled." Disney took Van Dykes recommendation and the married duo created one of the best know live-action dances in the history of the Disney Studio - the chimney sweep number to the song "Step In Time." Van Dyke remarked, "We had so much fun. Then I took them to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with me. Mary Poppins also led them to work on the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music. Robert Wise saw a screening of the chimney sweep number and hired them. Van Dyke said one of his fondest memories of Breaux concerns a step the choreographer put in the "Jolly Holiday" number of "Mary Poppins." It was based on a bit Breaux used to do for fun. "Hard to describe, but its like you try to step on your own foot, and then jump out of the way. Marc stuck it in there as our little signature. It was our own little joke".
Breaux and Wood met while working on a television show hosted by Stan Kenton, married in 1955 and appeared together on the Rialto in "Lil Abner," choreographed by Michael Kidd, known for his athletic style of dance. In 1961 the pair transferred to the West Coast where during the time variety shows were popular on television - they created dances for more than 200 TV episodes. Working with performers who were not primarily dancers became a Breaux and Wood hallmark. It was a situation they faced often as the choreographers on the NBC Dinah Shore Chevy Show, Jack Benny Comedy Show, Andy Williams Show, and on the Saturday night ABC variety show "The Hollywood Palace" that ran from 1964 to 1970 - sometimes featured guest hosts, singers and comedians in the shows opening production dance numbers. Breaux said in a 1999 interview conducted by members of the arts faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, "You try to put them with good dancers who can haul them around if you had to. So you would say, Do you know what your left foot is? And they would say Yes. And I would say, Well, were going to stamp the left foot twice and then were going to stamp the right foot once. You had to be very specific with what you told them".
In the final seventh 1969-1970 "Hollywood Palace" season, show #15 aired January 24, 1970, learning of the shows network cancellation, Nick Vanoff gave Marc Breaux one show to direct for his biography/director-credit. Since this was the third to last show to air, the "Palace" program featured Steve Allen as host, with the following "retro-Hollwood Palace" performer-guest talents: Jayne Meadows, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Dale Evans and Roy Rogers with Trigger, Eydie Gorme and Steve Lawrence.
