Born in Toronto, Kenny began formal dance training at eighteen at the National Ballet School and Toronto Dance Theatre.

He lived in New York City for thirteen years, dancing internationally with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and with the Martha Graham Dance Company. He taught at the Juilliard School of Music and at the Graham and Ailey schools, and was a faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University for 20 years. He was artistic-director of Toronto Dance Theatre from 1983-87.

Dance/Life was published in 1990, and The Dance Gods: A New York Memoir came out in 2015. He has been working on his debut novel, The Pendant, for the past five years.

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