Biography

Dennon Rawles is known for Bugsy (1991), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) and Club Life (1986). He is married to Sayhber Rawles. They have one child.

His daughter Jessica Terese Rawles (B. July 21, 1981) died unexpectedly from complications from Marfan Syndrome on August 8, 2008. She was 27 years old.

Dennon Rawles has earned international recognition as a choreographer, performer and educator with credits in Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and Hollywood. With his wife Sayhber, he has choreographed six feature films including John Travolta's Staying Alive, and Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty. He choreographed for Las Vegas, commercials, musicals, stage productions, television and ballets, and many works for college dance programs. He has choreographed numerous musicals including Guys and Dolls, Damn Yankees and West Side Story. In 1979 Dennon and Sayhber Rawles founded Jazz Dancers, Inc., for which Dennon served as co-director, producer and principal choreographer until 1993. The company was awarded several grants and honors, including being selected for the California Arts Council Touring Program. JDI held gala performances at the Japan America Theatre in Los Angeles, Wilshire Ebel Theater, La Mirada Civic Theater, CSU Fullerton, UCLA, USC, CSUN and other venues, and JDI was a featured company at the 1992 Jazz Dance World Congress held in Chicago.

Trained in ballet, jazz, tap, ballroom and Latin dance, Dennon has performed in more than one hundred television shows, including four Academy Awards shows, the American Music Awards, the Golden Globe Awards and the People's Choice Awards. Dennon was a featured performer in both Baryshnikov T.V. Specials, having assisted legendary Broadway and Film choreographer/director Michael Kidd on the second broadcast. He partnered American Ballet Theater ballerina Leslie Browne on television and has appeared in many films including History of the World, Part 1, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and New York, New York. He has worked with Liza Minnelli, Juliet Prowse, Sandy Duncan, Ann-Margret, Carol Burnett, Gregory Hines, the Nicholas Brothers and Janet Jackson. He and his wife have guest performed for many college and university concerts since the 1980's.

In addition to teaching at Orange Coast College and Moorpark College since 1992, and Cerritos College since 2002, Dennon previously taught for 18 years at the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program and was on the dance faculties of CSU Long Beach, UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Ana College and Allan Hancock College.