Elissa Minet Fuchs (born Elise Minette Levy; March 10, 1919 – February 17, 2023) was an American ballerina and choreographer.
Her career started in 1935 on the vaudeville stage and nightclub circuit, leading to gigs as a chorus girl on Broadway.
[4] In September 1935, as she was getting ready to finish high school in New Orleans, she and her mother heard about professional dance opportunities in Chicago.
[1] Her father initially objected but, with the support of her mother, sister, and the family rabbi, she was permitted to travel to Chicago to seek work as a dancer.
[1] Upon arriving in Chicago with her mother, Fuchs changed her name from Elise Minette Levy to Elissa Minet and decided to lie about her age, saying she was eighteen instead of sixteen.
[3] Fuchs stayed in the United States and won a series of auditions for the Metropolitan Opera's resident ballet company, beating out 500 other dancers including Nora Kaye and Alicia Alonso.
[1] At the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, she danced as Cleopatra in Faust, One of the Three Graces in Tannhäuser, High Priestess in Aida, and as a gypsy in Carmen.
[3] Fuchs danced her last professional role in March 2000 as Carabosse in Greensboro Ballet's production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty.
[3] She joined Victory Troupe, an acting group, and worked with Milton Berle, Martha Raye, Victor Mature, Carol Landis, Walter O'Keefe, and Katie Smith.
[6] Fuchs also worked as the ballet mistress and choreographer for the New Orleans Opera and other performing arts companies in Jackson, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama.
[3] From 2001 to 2002, she produced a revue titled My Life and Dance in 20th Century which detailed her life and career spanning through major world events including the Great Depression, The Holocaust, World War II, the Civil rights movement, Reaganomics, and the Moon landing of Apollo 11.