De Mille, Agnes

Agnes George de Mille was born in New York City, September 18, 1905, daughter of film producer, William de Mille and Anna (George) de Mille, daughter of economist Henry George. When Agnes was nine years old the family moved to Hollywood where her uncle, Cecil B. de Mille, was a motion picture director. Agnes entered university at age sixteen graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in English. Although she began dancing in her early teens, it was not until after her graduation from college that she seriously considered dancing as a career. She studied with Theodore Koslov, Marie Rambert, Antony Tudor, and Tamara Karasvina, becoming a proficient ballet dancer. In 1925 her parents divorced and she and her sister, Margaret, moved back to New York with their mother. De Mille's first New York performance was in MacKlin Marow's production of Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera in 1927. She choreographed productions through the early 1930s, returning to Hollywood in 1934 to participate in Cecil B. de Mille's Cleopatra, from which she withdrew after differences arose over the dances. De Mille spent the 1937-38 season in England helping to form a ballet troupe in Oxford and choreographing Cole Porter's The Nymph Errant starring Gertrude Lawrence. She staged dances for Leslie Howard's Hamlet (1936), Ed Wynn's Hooray for What?(1937), Swingin' the Dream (1939), and a jazz version of A Midsummer's Night Dream. In 1939 she joined the New York Ballet Theatre as choreographer and performer. During her first season she choreographed Black Ritual, the first ballet of a classical American ballet company to be danced by all black dancers. She then established a company of her own and began a national tour. In 1941, de Mille devised a scenario for Rodeo for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo which was presented in 1942. In 1943 she did the choreography for Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein's hit musical Oklahoma!. She was one of the first women choreographers to work on Broadway doing the choreography for One Touch of Venus (1943), Bloomer Girl (1944), Carousel (1945), Brigadoon (1947), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), and Paint Your Wagon (1951). De Mille also published articles on dance and several books. These include two autobiographical works: Dance to the Piper (1952), and Promenade Home (1958), To A Young Dancer (1960), The Book of Dance (1963), Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death (1968), The Dance in America (1971), and Speak to Me, Dance With Me (1973). Despite a stroke and heart attack in the mid 1970s, de Mille continued her writing, publishing two memoirs, Where the Wings Grow (1978) and Reprieve (1981). She also choreographed the ballets The Informer (1988) and The Other (1992).

Agnes de Mille combined American folk dances and American music into classic art and was an innovator in dance who transformed the world of musical comedy forever. She received many awards including twelve honorary degrees, the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for best choreography (1947 and 1962), Theatre Hall of Fame (1973), Handel Medallion (1976), John F. Kennedy Center Career Achievement Award (1980), and the National Medal of the Arts (1986).

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