Stroman was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the daughter of Frances (née Nolan) and Charles Harry Stroman. She was exposed to show tunes by her piano-playing salesman father. She began studying dance, concentrating on jazz, tap, and ballet at the age of five. She studied under James Jamieson at the Academy of the Dance in Wilmington. She majored in theatre at the University of Delaware. She performed, choreographed and directed at community theaters in the Delaware and Philadelphia area. After graduating in 1976, she moved to New York City. Her first professional appearance was in Hit the Deck at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1977. Her first Broadway credit was as an ensemble member in the 1979 musical Whoopee!. In 1980 she was assistant director, assistant choreographer, and dance captain for the Broadway show Musical Chairs. Wanting to direct and choreograph instead of perform, Stroman concentrated on creating for the theater. She worked in small venues as a director and choreographer in various industrial shows, club acts and commercials.[citation needed]\n', '

Stroman\'s big break as a choreographer came in 1987 when director Scott Ellis hired her for his Off-Broadway revival of Flora the Red Menace (music by John Kander and Fred Ebb) at the Vineyard Theatre near Union Square. Her work there was seen by Hal Prince, who hired her to work on the dance sequences for his New York City Opera production of Don Giovanni. Her relationship with Kander and Ebb led to co-creating, with Ellis and David Thompson, the hit Off-Broadway musical And the World Goes \'Round in 1991. She went on to choreograph Liza Stepping Out at Radio City Music Hall in 1992, receiving an Emmy nomination for her work. She earned her third Broadway credit for her collaboration with director, and then-future husband, Mike Ockrent on Crazy for You in 1992. The show won the Tony Award for Best Musical and she won her first Tony Award for Best Choreography.\n', '

In 1994, Stroman won her second Tony Award when she collaborated with Prince on a revival of Show Boat, where she used some of her most innovative ideas. She added several dance montages to the show, complete with a revolving door, to help guide the audience through the generations that are covered in the show. Stroman heavily researched the period in which the show takes place and learned that African-Americans are credited for inventing the Charleston. She used that information in designing the montages, as the popular dance is introduced by and eventually appropriated from the black characters. In 1994, Stroman collaborated again with her husband Mike Ockrent on the holiday spectacular A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden, which ran for 10 years, and the Broadway musical Big, The Musical (1996). She returned to her collaboration with Kander and Ebb, Ellis and Thompson on the Broadway musical Steel Pier (1997). In 1999, her choreography of Oklahoma!, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Royal National Theater, won Stroman her second Olivier Award for her outstanding choreography. Stroman\'s husband Mike Ockrent died from leukemia on December 2, 1999.\n', '

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