Terrace played Bernardo in West Side Story with the national company and was picked out of 2,500 ballet dancers[citation needed] to be at the Metropolitan Opera House[which?]
[citation needed] Early Years Miguel Santiago Gutierrez de Lozano was born in Spanish Harlem, New York City on December 30, 1925.
[3] Some of the original "Mambo-niks", Michael and Elita, were regulars in the Palladium Ballroom dance competitions and helped to bring the Mambo craze to mainstream America.
His stories of the formative years of the Mambo in the Catskills, where Michael was a teacher, inspired Eleanor Bergstein's vision of lead character Johnny Castle (played by Patrick Swayze).
Michael Terrace later lived in Boynton Beach, Florida, and continued to dance with friends at the Goldcoast until he died on March 16, 2018, at the age of 92.