[1] After high school, Haney left her home town for Hollywood and landed bit parts in movies until she was spotted by dancer/choreographer Jack Cole, becoming his dance partner and assistant from 1946 to 1948.
She then focused her career on choreography for Broadway shows: Flower Drum Song (1958, directed by Gene Kelly), Bravo Giovanni (1962), She Loves Me (1963) and Funny Girl (1964).
Haney earned three Tony Award for Best Choreography nominations: for Flower Drum Song, Bravo Giovanni, and Funny Girl (posthumous).
She demonstrated her talent as a dramatic actress in occasional stage productions such as the role of "Lila" in William Inge's A Loss of Roses, opposite newcomer Warren Beatty, who, ironically, was Shirley MacLaine's real-life brother.
[citation needed] Haney was married to Eugene Dorian Johnson from 1945 to 1953 and then Broadway actor and TV host Larry Blyden from 1955 to 1962, whom she choreographed in Flower Drum Song.
Haney died in Saddle River, New Jersey in 1964, at age 39, six weeks after the opening of Funny Girl, which she choreographed (and ten years to the month after she injured her ankle and was replaced by Shirley MacLaine in The Pajama Game).