Agnes de Mille

Lore & Background

Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and uncle Cecil B. DeMille were Hollywood directors; her mother was the daughter of economist Henry George. She originally wanted to be an actress but was told she was 'not pretty enough,' so she turned to dance. Despite lacking flexibility and technique, she developed strong character work by observing film stars on her father's sets.

Her early career included choreographing for Cecil B. In 1939 she began working with the American Ballet Theatre, creating Black Ritual (Obeah) for its first season—the first representation of black dancers in a New York ballet performance within a dominantly white company. Her first recognized significant work was Rodeo (1942), with music by Aaron Copland, staged for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her success there led to choreographing Oklahoma!

(1943), whose dream ballet integrated dance into the plot, a groundbreaking innovation. De Mille also wrote extensively, including the memoir Dance to the Piper (1951) and a biography of Martha Graham. She founded the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre in 1973 and spoke before Congress three times advocating for dance. She was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on the Arts by President John F. Kennedy and later to the National Endowment for the Arts by President Lyndon B. Johnson.