{{short description|American actress}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Rita Christiani | image = Photo of Rita Christiani.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1917|12|22}} | birth_place = Port of Spain, Trinidad | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2008|05|23|1917|12|22}} | death_place = Brooklyn, New York | other_names = | occupation = Dancer<br/>Actress | spouse = | years_active = 1940s }}
'''Rita Christiani''' (1917-2008) was a Trinidad-born American dancer who appeared in American films during the 1940s.
==Biography== Christiani was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad on December 22, 1917.<ref name="imdb">{{cite web|title=Rita Christiani|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0160124/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t1|website=IMDb|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref>
She danced and toured with the Katherine Dunham Company in the early 1940s.<ref name="McCann">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television|last1=McCann|first1=Bob|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7ZYsnTPIhwC&q=Rita+Christiani+%2B+McCann&pg=PA80|publisher=McFarland Publishing|date=2009|page=80|isbn=9780786437900|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref> In the course of touring, Christiani met the independent avant-garde filmmaker, Maya Deren,<ref name="Nicholsl">{{cite book|title=Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde|last1=Nichols|first1=Bill|publisher=University of California Press|date=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NA8a2jbCUTcC&q=Rita+Christiani+%2B+Nicholsisbn%3D9780520227323&pg=PP12|page=131|isbn=9780520227323|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref> and was given a role in Deren’s film ''Ritual in Transfigured Time'' (1946). Deren was the main character in the film and Christiani danced the role of Deren’s alter ego, their images interchanging in black and white counterpoint to the dancer Frank Westbrook.<ref name="Nicholsl2">{{cite book|title=Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde|last1=Nichols|first1=Bill|publisher=University of California Press|date=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NA8a2jbCUTcC&q=Rita+Christiani+%2B+Nichols&pg=PP12|isbn=9780520227323|page=141|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Baena">{{cite book|title=Transculturing Auto/Biography: Forms of Life Writing|last1=Baena|first1=Rosalia|publisher=Routledge|date=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NUCPAQAAQBAJ&q=Rita+Christiani+%2B+Baena&pg=PT149|isbn=9780415759496|pages=75–76|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref> Anaïs Nin was also in the film.<ref name="Ritual">{{cite web|title=Ritual in Transfigured Time |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038885/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm|website=IMDb|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref>
Footage of Christiani from this film was included in the documentary ''In the Mirror of Maya Deren'' (2002) by Martina Kudlacek.<ref name="McCann"/>
Christiani and Deren became close friends, sharing the bond of being uprooted from their native lands as children and coming to America.<ref name="Boelhower">{{cite book|title=New Orleans in the Atlantic World: Between Land and Sea|last1= Boelhower|first1=William|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=eR3dAAAAQBAJ&q=Rita+Christiani&pg=PA205|page=205|publisher=Routledge|date=2013|isbn= 9780415849722}}</ref>
Her other film appearances include ''The Black Swan'' (1942) starring Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara, ''Road to Morocco'' (1942) starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, and the musicals ''Thank Your Lucky Stars'' (1942) and ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1943).<ref name="McCann"/>
After working in films and as a dancer, Christiani may have been a nurse in Chicago.<ref name="Dunham">{{cite book|title=Kaiso! Writings by and about Katherine Dunham|editor1=Clark, Veve A.|editor2= Johnson, Sara E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5w-cA-th3UC&q=Rita+Christiani&pg=PA126|publisher= University of Wisconsin Press|location=Madison WI|date=2006|page=126|isbn=9780299212742|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref>
Christiani died on May 23, 2008, in Brooklyn, New York.<ref name="imdb"/>
==Filmography== * ''Tales of Manhattan'' (1942) - young woman (uncredited) * ''Road to Morocco'' (1942) - dancer (uncredited) * ''The Black Swan'' (1942) - dancer (uncredited) * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1943) - as herself * ''Cabin in the Sky'' (1943) - dancer (uncredited) * ''I Walked with a Zombie'' (1943) - friend of Melise (uncredited) * ''Thank Your Lucky Stars'' (1943) - Ice Cold Katie * ''Ritual in Transfigured Time'' (1946) - as herself
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|name= Rita Christiani |id= nm0160124 }} * {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyYI7i3FVM|title=Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)|website=YouTube |access-date=18 September 2017}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Christiani, Rita}} Category:1917 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American modern dancers Category:American female dancers Category:American film actresses Category:20th-century American actresses Category:20th-century American dancers Category:Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States Category:21st-century American women