Agnes

DeMille
By: Asher, Miceala,
Steven & Jaria
01:
Early life and
significance
today
Biographical aspects of
her life and training
-Agnes de mille was born in 1905 in Harl to William Churchill and
Anna George. Quickly moved to California. .

- First started to find her love of dance watching Pavlova in the ballet,
Agnes and her sister was never put into dance due to her father really
wanting sons, and thought dancers had bad reputations

-she started dance at 19 years old

- went to UCLA and earned a degree in literature then went on to find

classes and jobs

watch

-trained in the ramberts club in london for 5 years to strengthen

technique

- she started choreographing around 1930

-Died on october 7th, 1993. She was 88 years old

“If she had done nothing
else other than create
the ‘Dream ballet’...
choreographer Agnes de
mille would have
contributed a great leap
forward in the American
musical. As it happens,
de Mille created far more
than that-”
watch

Agnes describes oklahoma

watch

Agnes

watch

Agnes on oklahoma (50th anniversary)

Contributions-
watch

Agnes used her foundational love of acting to really originate new choreography that
people haven't seen before. She loved incorporating realistic movements into dances that
added to the characters and storyline.

“Viewing dance as a theatrical and expressive art, Miss de Mille stressed

motivated gestures rather than niceties of classical style in her choreography and
in her coaching of dancers. For her, bodily movement was a form of
communication akin to speech. An eclectic, she drew from ordinary gesture and
everyday movement as well as from the technical vocabularies of classical ballet,
modern dance and folk and social dance. The dramatic situation always
determined the type of movement she employed.”

-The new york times

 Becoming a Choreographer
➢ Unable to find employment in the theater, DeMille arranged the music and
designed the costumes and gave a series of solo concerts in New York and
other east coast venues.
➢ Her world-famous Rodeo was a huge success, and one that markedly started
off her career. She danced the leading role of the “Cowgirl” at the
Metropolitan Opera House on October 16, 1942, and received twenty-two
curtain calls and standing ovations.
➢ The wedding of DeMille and her husband Prude followed on the heels of the
opening of Oklahoma! To this day, it is one of the most triumphantly
successful musicals in American History. It was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
first collaboration and DeMille forever changed the history and use of dance
in the American musical theater with her invention of the “Dream Ballet,”
which used dance to further the plot and explore the unconscious of the
characters . She successfully made choreography that enhanced the plot for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJNcz_tyTYM
the first time in American history. Asher
 Who Did She Work For?
Places
● American Ballet theater
● Metropolitan Opera House
People
● Rodgers and Hammerstein
● Kurt Weill
Shows ● Harold Arlen
● One Touch of Venus ● Alan Jay Lerner
● Carousel ● Jule Styne
● Brigadoon ● Cole Porter
● Gentlemen Prefers Blondes ● Frederick Loewe
● Romeo & Juliet ● Sigmund Romberg
● Oklahoma! ● Leroy Anderson.
● Russe de Monte Carlo
● A Rose for Miss Emily
● Texas Forth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJPuk9dPJFI
Asher
 “To dance is to be out of yourself.
Larger, more beautiful, more
powerful. This is power, it is glory on
earth and it is yours for the taking”
- Agnes DeMille
Her
Influences
Early Influences
● Classical English Ballet

● Madame Marie Lambert Ballet Club

○ Frederick Ashton, Anthony Tudor

● American Ballet Theatre’s “Black Ritual”

Frederick Ashton Anthony Tudor
Founding Choreographer, Founder, The London Ballet
● Growing up in Hollywood The Royal Ballet The Philadelphia Ballet Guild

○ Was known to be a very dramatic child

○ Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet

● Her original love was for Acting, which allowed her to bridge into musical theatre

“Black Ritual” 1940

See influences in famous works

“Many A New Day”- Oklahoma “June is Bustin out all over”- Carousel
Agnes DeMille Choreography Agnes DeMille Choreography
“There would be no
Oklahoma! without
Rodeo.”
- Agnes DeMille
How she's known
How she’s known

● Multiple musicals
○ “Oklahoma” “Rodeo”
Agnes DeMille Choreography
○ “Brigadoon”
○ “Bloomer Girl” and “Paint your Wagon”
● Multiple famous films
○ “Oklahoma”
○ “Romeo and Juliet”
● Ballet choreographer
○ “Fall River Legend”
○ “Black River”
○ “Rodeo”
“Brigadoon”
Agnes DeMille Choreography
Playbill IMDB IBDB
Her Written Works

● To A Young Dancer (1962)

○ Advice to a young dancer

● Lizzie Borden: Dance of Death (1968)

○ Fall River Legend

● Reprieve: A Memoir (1981)

○ Her life!
Developing Her Technique

● Took formal training in Ballet and Modern Dance. Notable

influences being Fredrick Ashton, and Anthony Tudor.

● Experimented heavily with different ways to approach each

style.

● Her style was greatly influenced by observing works like

Martha Graham.
Evolution of Her Craft

Agnes DeMille's "The Farmer and the Agnes DeMille "Louise's Ballet"
Cowman"
Genres and Mediums

● Worked heavily in the dancing sphere on broadway, including

choreography for Ballet and Musical Theatre Dance pieces.

● Choreographed works for multiple films.

● Choreographed dance pieces in television shows and

specials.
Her Past Works

Agnes DeMille IMDB

Work Cited
● Mary Ellen Snodgrass. The Encyclopedia of World Ballet. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1003362&site=eds-live.
● William A. Everett, and Paul R. Laird. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1079076&site=eds-live.
● Shapiro, L. “The Lady Is a Champ.” Newsweek, vol. 119, no. 16, Apr. 1992, p. 76. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=9204203421&site=eds-live.
● Anderson Ferrell. Agnes DeMille’s Dances. Richard Garmise The Law Offices of Richard Garmise, PLLC, 1993.
https://www.agnesdemille.com/short-biography-of-agnes-de-mille-1
● Amy Tikkanen. Agnes DeMille: American Dancer and Choreography. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agnes-de-Mille
● Rodgers and Hammerstein, Agnes DeMille describes her dances in Rodeo, Youtube 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJPuk9dPJFI
● Rodgers and Hammerstein, Origins of “The Dream Ballet”, Youtube 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJNcz_tyTYM

● MLA – Rothberg, Emma. “Agnes de Mille.” National Women’s History Museum, 2021. Date accessed.