Original choreography, Oklahoma!

Agnes de Mille was an influential American choreographer, director and dancer who developed the narrative aspect of dance and made innovative use of American themes, folk dances and physical idioms in her choreography of musical plays and ballets. After graduating with honors from the University of California, Agnes de Mille gave her first solo dance recital in 1928 at the Republic Theater in New York. Most of de Mille’s other ballets were choreographed for New York City’s Ballet Theatre, which she joined in 1940.There she choreographed productions such as Black Ritual, Three Virgins and a Devil, and Aaron Copland’s Rodeo. Her work for Rodeo, in which she danced the leading role, was highly acclaimed and led to her being hired for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s first musical, Oklahoma! (1943). She worked mainly as a choreographer, but occasionally as a director, on such shows as Carousel, Brigadoon, Kwamina, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Paint Your Wagon and 110 in the Shade. De Mille received two Tonys (for Brigadoon and Kwamina), and numerous other honors and citations.