Quiz

Choreographer Agnes de Mille came from a prominent family. A graduate from UC-Berkeley (class of 1926), she was the daughter of William C. de Mille, niece of Cecil B. DeMille, granddaughter of Beatrice DeMille, sister of Peggy George, and sister-in-law of B.P. Fineman.

De Mille's husband, Walter Foy Prude, died of heart failure at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan after a long bout with emphysema. Her own ashes are inurned in Merriewold Park, Forestburgh, Sullivan County, New York, beside those of her husband. The couple had a son, Jonathan (born 1946).

A witty and vivid writer and speaker, she remained unquenchable in spirit even after being disabled by a cerebral hemorrhage on May 15, 1975, as she was about to go on stage for her famous lecture, 'Converstions About the Dance'. It paralyzed the right side of her body. She had to undergo two operations to remove blood clots. With the aid of rehabilitative therapy and her own enormous willpower, she recovered sufficiently to continue her career, learning to write with her left hand in the process.

Agnes de Mille was born at 357 West 118th Street in Harlem, close to Morningside Park.

She won two Tony Awards as Best Choreographer: in 1947 for "Brigadoon", in a tie with Michael Kidd for "Finian's Rainbow", and in 1962 for "Kwamina", in a tie with Joe Layton for "No Strings". She was also nominated in the same category in 1959 for "Goldilocks".

She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1986 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

Agnes de Mille had a love for acting and originally wanted to be an actress, but was told that she was "not pretty enough", so she turned her attention to dance.

In 1973, de Mille founded the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre, which she later revived as Heritage Dance Theatre.

As a child, she had longed to dance, but dance at this time was considered more of an activity, rather than a viable career option, so her parents refused to allow her to dance. She did not seriously consider dancing as a career until after she graduated from college.

De Mille was a lifelong friend of modern dance legend Martha Graham. De Mille, in 1992, published Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham, a biography of Graham that de Mille worked on for more than 30 years.

She was interviewed in the television documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980) primarily discussing the work of her uncle Cecil B. DeMille.

She suffered a stroke on stage in 1975, but recovered.

At present, the only commercially available examples of de Mille's choreography are parts one and two of Rodeo by the American Ballet Theatre, Fall River Legend (filmed in 1989 by the Dance Theatre of Harlem) and Oklahoma.

Agnes de Mille appears in a wheelchair in Frederick Wiseman's 1995 film Ballet rehearsing her final piece, "The Other." She tells her star "You must look like something that's absolutely broken, and stuck up in the wind.".

She was not invited to recreate her choreography for either Brigadoon (1954) or Carousel (1956). Nevertheless, her two specials for the Omnibus TV series titled "The Art of Ballet" and "The Art of Choreography" (both televised in 1956) were immediately recognized as landmark attempts to bring serious dance to the attention of a broad public.

Agnes de Mille donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College "between 1959 and 1968, and her Dance To The Piper was purchased in 1994.

De Mille graduated from UCLA with a degree in English where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and in 1933 moved to London to study with Dame Marie Rambert, eventually joining Rambert's company, The Ballet Club, later Ballet Rambert, and Antony Tudor's London Ballet.

After suffering from a near-fatal stroke, she wrote five books: Reprieve (which outlined the experience), Who Was Henry George?, Where the Wings Grow, America Dances, Portrait Gallery, and Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham. She also wrote And Promenade Home, To a Young Dancer, The Book of Dance, Lizzie Borden: Dance of Death, Dance in America, Russian Journals, and Speak to Me, Dance with Me.

De Mille received seven honorary degrees from various colleges and universities, and she was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 2004.

De Mille was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1973.

During his presidency, John F. Kennedy appointed de Mille a member of the National Advisory Committee on the Arts, the predecessor to the National Endowment for the Arts, to which she was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson after its creation.

DeMille's 1951 memoir Dance to the Piper was translated into five languages. It was reissued in 2015 by New York Review Books.

De Mille's success on Broadway did not translate into success in film. Her only significant film credit is Oklahoma! (1955).

De Mille developed a love for public speaking, becoming an outspoken advocate for dance in America. She spoke in front of Congress three times: once in the Senate, once in the House of Representatives, and once for the Committee for Medical Research.

While she lived in New York and was working for Ballet Theatre in 1941, de Mille choreographed Drums Sound in Hackensack for the Jooss Ballet (originally located in Germany), which had just moved to New York in 1939. This was an important step in the company's history as it was the first performance not choreographed by Kurt Jooss himself. Although there are no film recordings of the performance, de Mille's choreography notes and personal reflections of the dancers shed light on the characteristics of the performance. The piece was placed in a historical context with an American theme and fit the traditional mold for de Mille's pieces featuring a female perspective.