Kelley Abbey

Kelley Abbey (born 28 July 1966) is an Australian actress, choreographer, singer and dancer. She has been a leading performer and choreographer in TV, film and musical theatre for more than 20 years. She remains best known for her role on soap opera E Street as Jo-Jo Adams. Abbey played Sheila in the 2003 Australian cast of Hair and Rizzo in an arena production of Grease, and later choreographed an arena stadium tour of Grease – the Arena Spectacular. Other musicals Abbey has choreographed include Follies at the Sydney Opera House, Footloose and most recently Hugh Jackman's The Boy from Oz in the Arena for which she won a Helpmann Award along with Kenny Ortega. Abbey has also choreographed Xanadu the musical, Funny Girl starring Caroline O'Connor, Jesus Christ Superstar, Miracle City and Cabaret the Musical. She has choreographed Gail Edwards Carmen on the harbour for Opera Australia and also Gail's Helpmann award-winning version of Salome and a different version of Carmen for John Bell on the Opera House main stage. In 2010 she directed and choreographed a new rebooted version of Fame the Musical where she won another Helpmann Award. She was also the associate director to Baz Luhrmann on Strictly Ballroom the musical. She continues to mentor young performers around the country about mindset and nurturing your creativity whilst pursuing a career in the Entertainment Industry. Choreography Abbey was honoured at the Choreography Media Honours in Los Angeles for her choreography in the Oscar-winning feature Happy Feet. She was also head motion capture consultant on the film, ran "penguin school" and was the principal motion capture performer.