Agnes de Mille

It seems strange that such an important person in dance as Agnes de Mille was forbidden to even take a dance class until the age of 13 when she persuaded her parents to allow her to accompany her sister to a class. Her sister was recovering from an injury and her doctor recommended dance as rehabilitation. The de Mille’s generally thought dance was too lowbrow for their daughters and had decided that Agnes would be a writer and follow in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, both prominent playwrights. Agnes de Mille was born on September 18, 1905 in Harlem, but 1914, her family moved to Hollywood where her uncle, Cecil B. de Mille was already a prospering film director.

Agnes was not a stranger to opposition. Besides her family’s reluctance to allow her to pursue dance, she was told by various dance teachers and family members that she was talentless and ugly. This did not stop her from working towards her goals. To appease her family, she studied English at UCLA, but soon thereafter traveled to London where she began to study ballet under Antony Tudor at Marie Rambert’s Ballet Club. Here she acquired the principals of classical ballet technique that she would later use to revolutionize the world of musical theater.

In 1939, the American Ballet Theater commissioned Ms. de Mille to create works for the company as well as direct and perform in them. The most noteworthy is Fall River Legend, a dance-drama about Lizzie Borden. She also began working on films during this period and created Rodeo for Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Rodeo was Agnes’ first important ballet, infusing tap dance and movements evocative of the American west with ballet. Rodgers and Hammerstein saw a performance of Rodeo and asked de Mille to create choreography for their new musical, Oklahoma! in 1943. This was her big break as Oklahoma! was highly successful. Oklahoma! also holds special importance because it is the first time that dance was an integral part of a musical, helping to move along the story line and develop the characters. De Mille went on to choreograph such musicals as Bloomer Girl (1944), Carousel (1945), Brigadoon (1947), and Paint Your Wagon (1951).

In addition to her choreographic résumé, she was an important spokesperson for governmental and private support for the arts at congressional hearings and other public forums. In 1973 de Mille founded the Heritage Dance Theater, which was based at the North Carolina School of the Arts. She also did not let that English degree go to waste; de Mille was the author of 12 books including To a Young Dancer (1962), The Book of the Dance (1963), and Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham (1991).

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