Otis
Sallid is a choreographer, actor, writer, director and producer.
Otis was born on April 17th
1949 in Harlem New York. He was drew to dancing at an early age and studied with
the Harlem Youth Unlimited, then went to the High School for Performing Arts
and then later Julliard.
He started his career working
on Broadway shows like The Wiz and Purlie and also founded The New Art Ensemble
Theatre Company where he worked with Debbie Allen.
His varied and distinguished
career has found him working on in every field of the entertainment business:
Commercials for products
like Coca Cola, Sprite, McDonalds and Ford;
Music Videos for the
likes of Faith Hill, Prince and Aretha Franklin;
Choreography for Shows
like the Super Bowl and Academy Awards;
Film Choreography for
Sister Act 2, School Daze and Malcolm X;
Theatre where he created
the show Smokey Joe’s Café.
TV Shows like Suddenly
Susan, Head of the Class, Living Single and A Different World.
In 1982 Debbie Allen invited
him to be her assistant choreographer on the second season of “Fame” where he worked on 50 episodes
in seasons 2, 3 and the first few episodes of season 4. 6 of those episodes he
was the main choreographer. He also
appeared in the episode “U.N. Week” as a guest star and had a Co Producer
credit on the Heart of Rock n Roll concerts in 1984. As well as assisting Debbie
with the Choreography for the Fame Concert Tours.
Otis viewed Fame as one
of his creative homes. . Under Debbie
Allen’s tutelage, he learned to direct
and choreograph for film.
Otis continues his work
in the Arts as well as running his production company Creative Otis Inc. He
also spends his time speaking and teaching in colleges, universities and arts
programs around the world, The Boston Conservatory, Berklee School of Music,
Pace University in New York City, The Broadway Dreams Foundation and Perry
Mansfield in Steamboat Springs in Colorado just to name a few.
Interview Part 1
Interview Part 2
Director Choreographer Show Reel.
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