When she was a little girl growing up in Chicago, Joanne DiVito knew she wanted to be a dancer. She wanted to express her feelings through movement and song, and she was going to do whatever it took to make that dream come true.
Some 70 years later, she was dancing in a Miley Cyrus video.
That’s not to say it took her 70-plus years to realize her dream, but that Joanne has been living that dream for her entire life.
Her family, she is quick to share, has a rich history with music. Being Italians, they, of course, have a strong passion for opera. Growing up in a three-flat with her entire family, this luxury was a gift made possible by her immigrant grandmother, who invested in sugar during the 1930s and 40s. Even though she was surrounded by artists and singers, she envisioned herself as a dancer from the age of three. She took ballet classes as a little girl and never let anyone stand in the way of her dream.
Joanne’s passion took her to New York as a teenager, with almost no money in her pocket, intent on joining Ballet Russes. Through the quirks of fate, though, she found herself cast in a Broadway show. And just like that, her career was off and running.
When she was starting out as a Broadway dancer, Joanne says, “Things were very exciting and challenging, one had to be tough in New York. It wasn’t easy.” Later, as one of the few female choreographers in a male-dominated field, that strength paid off for her. Soon her work took her to all 50 States with Disney, and internationally as a Director/Choreographer with her own production company. She had the honor of working in film, television, and on Broadway with greats like Ethel Merman, Patrick Swayze, Tom Bosley, Richard Rodgers, George Abbott, Irving Berlin, and countless other recognizable Hollywood and Broadway stars.
Not to say that it was smooth sailing all the time, though. There were long stretches of bad luck that included a shattered ankle, a divorce, and the loss of her house. But through it all, dance and music helped her to persevere through the challenges. “For some reason, my passion and curiosity was so deep inside me, it carried me through the most difficult of times,” she recalls.
And persevere, she did. From ballet and Broadway in New York to Disney on Parade in LA to over a hundred movies, TV commercials, and music videos all around the world, to her career as a Professor of Dance at Cal State Northridge and her side gig reviewing for LA Dance Chronicle, Joanne has been making her childhood dream come true in more ways than she ever imagined. At one point, she even started her own production company, directing and choreographing a World Cup halftime show and producing commercials for Toyota, Disney, Apple, and many other productions during its 20-year run.
There have been awards, too. Joanne has been nominated for Emmy and American Video awards and has been awarded the Professional Dancer Society’s Gypsy Robe. She’s beloved among the Los Angeles dance community and beyond.
When Joanne wasn’t working on stage (or directing, producing, or choreographing), she was learning a different skill: graphing the investment markets. She knew that she was eventually going to retire from dancing, and she decided to take a course in trading on the floor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. And though she learned a lot from that, she realized that a career as a trader wasn’t in the cards, she couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the dances she saw in the trading pit.
Joanne soon became the Director of “Career Transition for Dancers” (CTFD), and for 18 years helped others plan for their life after dance by giving grants to go back to school and start new businesses. When she retired from CTFD in 2015, after years of saying “yes” to every possible career move, she decided she would only do those things she loved, ending up training and Audio Describing theatre and dance for the blind; judging young artists to earn scholarships for their future careers; reviewing young dance companies and Broadway shows, and teaching dance at Cal State Northridge’s Kinesiology Department. All are joys in her life and ways for her to give back.
That path to retirement finance led Joanne to Dan and Worthington Wealth. Like so many others, Joanne was introduced to Dan by a friend, and from their first meeting, Joanne could tell that “Dan loves to study this stuff; it comes through in the way he talks.” And because Joanne also loves to study the things she’s passionate about, it was an instant match.
There’s one word that Joanne keeps repeating when talking about the places she’s been and the things that she’s done and the people that she’s worked with: Blessed. “I didn’t want to be famous when I was a little girl, I wanted to be a dancer. Throughout my life, I have been blessed. This has buoyed me in life.” Now that she’s hung up her dancing shoes – mostly, anyway – she’s focused on passing those blessings on to young people through teaching.
Talking to Joanne, a person can hear the passion for all her career’s phases and forms exuding in her voice. Asked about what she loves the most about the things she’s done, she says without hesitation that “being part of dance either on stage, watching or directing from the audience, describing it for the blind, sharing it with others is soulful work for me…it fills me with joy. It’s what I’ve done for love all my life.”