The Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre toured the United States from 1953 to 1954 under the aegis of producer Sol Hurok. The company offered an overview of Agnes de Mille's choreography to that date, with the addition of Anna Sokolow's "Short Lecture & Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime" (set to music by Billy Taylor) and Danny Daniels's "Razamatazz" (set to music by Jelly Roll Morton). In addition to several of de Mille's early pieces, the company performed the Bloomer Girl waltz and ballets based on the original dances for Brigadoon (Ballad, later reworked as Bitter Weird) and Paint Your Wagon (Gold Rush, televised in 1958 with Gemze de Lappe, James Mitchell, and Sono Osato). There is no known visual record of the full repertory, although archival footage exists of Ballad and the finale, "Hell on Wheels--1863."
There were twenty performers in the company, many of whom had worked for de Mille before. The leads were de Mille favourites James Mitchell, Gemze de Lappe and Lidija Franklin, with secondary roles taken by Virginia Bosler, tap dancer and choreographer Danny Daniels, Loren Hightower, the specialist in Scottish dance James Jamieson, Bunty Kelley, Casimir Kokic, Evelyn Taylor and Dusty Worrall. The ensemble and understudies included Edmund Balin, Robert Calder, Eleanor Fairchild, Jean Houloose, Alfa Liepa, Mavis Ray and Lizanne Truex. Rufus Smith and Raimonda Orselli provided the singing.
In 1974, de Mille revived the company as the Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theatre, in association with the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. [1] Mel Tomlinson was a principal dancer in the revived Heritage Dance Theatre. [2]
Paint Your Wagon is a Broadway musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story centers on a miner and his daughter and follows the lives and loves of the people in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. Popular songs from the show included "Wand'rin' Star", "I Talk to the Trees" and "They Call the Wind Maria".
Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide.
James Mitchell was an American actor and dancer. Although he is best known to television audiences as Palmer Cortlandt on the soap opera All My Children (1979–2010), theatre and dance historians remember him as one of Agnes de Mille's leading dancers. Mitchell's skill at combining dance and acting was considered something of a novelty; in 1959, the critic Olga Maynard singled him out as "an important example of the new dancer-actor-singer in American ballet", pointing to his interpretive abilities and "masculine" technique.
Gemze de Lappe was an American dancer who worked very closely with Agnes de Mille and was frequently partnered by de Mille's favorite male dancer, James Mitchell.
Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) is an American professional ballet company and school based in Harlem, New York City. It was founded in 1969 under the co-directorship of Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. Milton Rosenstock served as the company's music director from 1981 to 1992. The DTH is renowned for being both "the first Black classical ballet company", and "the first major ballet company to prioritize Black dancers".
Bloomer Girl is a 1944 Broadway musical with music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and a book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy, based on an unpublished play by Lilith and Dan James. The plot concerns independent Evelina Applegate, a hoop skirt manufacturer's daughter who defies her father by rejecting hoopskirts and embracing comfortable bloomers advocated by her aunt "Dolly" Bloomer, who was inspired by the women's rights advocate Amelia Bloomer. The American Civil War is looming, and abolitionist Evelina refuses to marry suitor Jeff Calhoun until he frees his slave, Pompey.
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is an American professional ballet company based in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
The Minnesota Ballet is a ballet company and school located in Duluth, Minnesota. Founded in 1965 by Donna Harkins and Jan Gibson as the Duluth Civic Ballet, the company has since expanded into a touring company with seventeen professional artists. From 1992–2007 the Artistic Executive Director of the Minnesota Ballet was Allen Fields, who retired to become Artistic Director Emirtus. Fields acquired rights to works by master choreographer's like Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, and George Balanchine. He was succeeded by current Artistic Director Robert Gardner. The Minnesota Ballet is entering its 53rd season in 2018/19.
Daniel Giagni Jr.,, known as Danny Daniels, was an American choreographer, tap dancer, and teacher.
James Jamieson was a specialist in Highland dancing, best remembered for both performing in and restaging Agnes de Mille's Brigadoon.
Fall River Legend is a ballet by American choreographer Agnes de Mille. While the ballet tells the infamous story of Lizzie Borden, it notably alters the outcome of court case, with Borden receiving a guilty verdict rather than an acquittal. De Mille herself believed that Borden was guilty of the murder of her father and stepmother. Like the majority of de Mille’s ballets, Fall River Legend is deeply character driven. The ballet was commissioned by American Ballet Theatre and premiered on April 22, 1948 at the Metropolitan Opera House. Today, Fall River Legend is considered by many scholars to be her masterpiece and when it first premiered, the reviews of the ballet were generally positive.
John Kriza was an American ballet dancer and teacher whose long career as a principal with American Ballet Theatre made him one of the best known and most admired male dancers in the country.
New York Theatre Ballet or NYTB was founded in 1978 by Diana Byer, who became its artistic director. Dedicated to the principles of the Cecchetti-Diaghilev tradition, the company both reprises classic masterworks and produces original ballets.
Carmelita Maracci was an American concert dancer and choreographer who creatively combined ballet and Spanish dance techniques. She excelled before an experienced audience, receiving praise from dancers and critics. In the mid-1920s her performing and choreographic career began. It continued into the 1950s. She then remained influential as a Los Angeles-based teacher.
Rodeo is a ballet composed by Aaron Copland and choreographed by Agnes de Mille, which premiered in 1942. Subtitled "The Courting at Burnt Ranch", the ballet consists of five sections: "Buckaroo Holiday", "Corral Nocturne", "Ranch House Party," "Saturday Night Waltz", and "Hoe-Down". The symphonic version omits "Ranch House Party", leaving the other sections relatively intact.
Born Nina Rigmor Strom, Nina Stroganova was a prima ballerina with several ballet companies in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1907, and died in New York in July 1994 of leukemia. She studied ballet with Jenny Moller and teachers from the Royal Danish Ballet. Her schooling was at the Institute Jeanne d'Arc, Denmark.
Mel Alexander Tomlinson was an American dancer and choreographer. At the time of his debut with the New York City Ballet in 1981, he was the only African-American dancer in the company. Ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille referred to Tomlinson as "the most exciting black dancer in America."
Karen Brown also known as Karen "KB" Brown is an award-winning ballerina, educator, répétiteur, ballet mistress, and director. She is noted for her long career as a principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and as the first African-American woman to lead a ballet company.