DE MILLE, Agnes

Born 1905, New York, New York; died October 1993

Daughter of William C. and Anna George de Mille; married Walter Prude, 1943

Agnes de Mille's mother was the daughter of political economist Henry George. Her father was a successful playwright, but after an unexpected flop on Broadway he went West to join his younger brother, Cecil B. de Mille, and became a movie director.

De Mille's first book, Dance to the Piper (1951), begins with her family's move from New York City to Hollywood in 1914, covers her difficult years of struggle to become a dancer and to launch a career, and culminates with her first two solid choreographic successes, Rodeo (1942) and Oklahoma! (1943). The book ranges from child's-eye sketches of personalities who frequented the de Mille household, such as Geraldine Farrar, Ruth St. Denis, Elinor Glyn, and Charlie Chaplin, to more detailed portraits of those who affected de Mille's dance career—Martha Graham, Argentina, Marie Rambert, Antony Tudor, Lucia Chase.

Enthusiasm and honesty are the keynotes of de Mille's literary style. Her greatest enthusiasm is for other accomplished artists, and her most brutal honesty concerns her own limitations. At fifteen, she says, "I considered my body a shame, a trap and a betrayal. But I could break it. I was a dancer." She is absolutely forthright in her advice on careers in dance, with constructive suggestions for dance teachers and critics, in To A Young Dancer (1962). In several of her books, she discusses how the development of professional dance, like the development of female consciousness, has been retarded by social, religious, and economic restraints.

The balancing of de Mille's own emotional and professional life in an especially turbulent period, 1942-45, is the basis of her second book, And Promenade Home (1956). She describes her whirlwind courtship, marriage to Lt. Walter F. Prude, and their subsequent two-year wartime separation, in counterpoint to her choreographic work on Oklahoma!, One Touch of Venus, Tally-Ho, Bloomer Girl, and Carousel. The nightmarish process of getting a Broadway show opened is reported by means of humorous anecdotes, fond portraits of collaborators, and some unabashed diatribes. Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death (1968) is a book-length study of the creation of her 1948 folk ballet, Fall River Legend. De Mille's historical research was meticulous, as it was for her earlier, illustrated Book of the Dance (1963). After a careful exploration of the scene of Lizzie Borden's crime, de Mille conducts the reader through her own transformation of historical fact into dance-drama. Accidents, personality clashes, and economic obstacles make of the creative process itself a taut, suspenseful narrative. In her Russian Journals (1970), de Mille recalls the stunned appreciation of Soviet audiences for this ballet when it was performed by American Ballet Theater on its USSR tour.

Speak to Me, Dance With Me (1973) goes back in time to de Mille's 1933-34 stay in London, which had been telescoped into three chapters in Dance to the Piper. The text consists of lively letters she wrote to her mother, interspersed with a running commentary on affairs about which she could not write home.

In Where the Wings Grow (1978), de Mille covers the earliest period in her life, before she had any serious thought of becoming a dancer. In this childhood memoir of summers at Merriewold, in Sullivan County, New York, de Mille evokes a turn-of-the-century way of life innocent of indoor plumbing and refrigeration, with home remedies, Irish Catholic house servants, lemonade and embroidery on the verandah, and ladies—like her mother—who prided themselves on their sheltered, genteel public image, even though it masked a great deal of anguished drudgery. She also writes of Sho-Foo-Den, the exotic Japanese mansion at Merriewold, and the story of its inhabitants, the Takamine family, first glimpsed through the child's eyes, later understood on an adult level. This latest book is a landmark in de Mille's literary career, because its lyricism and passion and the interest it sustains depend not at all upon the author's reputation as a dancer/choreographer.

In 1973, de Mille, who was an authority on Anglo-American folklore, founded the Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theater for the purpose of giving theatrical life to American folk-dance forms. She also received numerous professional awards and honorary degrees. Long recognized for her energetic contributions to American dance theater, de Mille was respected as a serious and prolific writer as well. Nearly half of her books were autobiographical; the others, like most of her magazine articles and speaking engagements, deal more specifically with dance as an artistic and social form of expression. De Mille was much in demand as a speaker, known for her engaging zeal and wit, and remained active until her death in 1993.