Vivian Nixon

Who is Vivian Nixon?

Vivian Nichole Nixon is a dancer who recently made her debut on Broadway as Kalimba in Hot Feet. She is one of two children of former NBA star Norm Nixon and dancer/choreographer/producer/director/actress Debbie Allen. She was named after her grandmother Vivian Ayers-Allen. Her aunt is actress Phylicia Rashad and her younger brother is basketball player Norm E. Nixon Jr. Vivian took gymnastics until she was 13, but when a fellow gymnast fell and was seriously injured, her mother took her out of the sport. She went on to study at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D. C. and at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, CA.

While still in her final year of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance, she was cast as Kalinda by Hot Feet's conceiver/director/choreographer Maurice Hines. Hot Feet follows the classic storyline of The Red Shoes with a '70s funk facelift, and Kalimba is the ambitious girl at the center of it who can't stop dancing.

She was named of the top "25 to Watch" by Dance Magazine in 2007.

Broadway: Hot Feet. Regional: Alan Johnson’s West Side Story, Bayou Legend, Pearl, Soul Possessed, Dreams, Brothers of the Knight and The Chocolate Nutcracker. Tours: Joey McKneely’s European tour of West Side Story, Alvin Ailey II and Opera Ebony’s Harriet. Film: 500 Days of Summer, Great Observer and Bolden. Television: Glee, Eli Stone, Everybody Hates Chris, Songs of Soul and Inspiration, That’s So Raven, Cool Women and Polly. Ms Nixon has also been a feature performer on four of the Annual Academy Awards.