Lee (Becker) Theodore was a Broadway director/choreographer and performer. Born in the 1930s to Russian Jewish immigrants Zena and Genya Becker, and raised in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, she began dance lessons at the age of 4. As a child, she often performing at her parents' "Veyetcherinkas"—Russian cultural arts nights in their home with her brother Eugene Becker (who later became a New York Philharmonic violist) and her sister, Rita (later Zweig). As she developed as a young dancer, she became recognized for her extraordinary talent and ability. She got her first professional job as a dancer in a ballet company when she still a teenager. As her dance career developed, she moved on from Classical ballet to the wildly creative work then being done in modern dance, Broadway, and what la