Agnes de Mille

Telling Stories in Broadway Dance

Kara Anne Gardner

Broadway Legacies

Puts choreographer center stage as an author of a Broadway musical
Reveals the musical as a collaborative genre with multiple layers of meaning
Based on archival materials in de Mille's papers
Inludes quotations from interviews and correspondence with de Mille's former dancers and colleagues, including Sondheim

Agnes de Mille

Telling Stories in Broadway Dance

Kara Anne Gardner

Description

This book explores the Broadway legacy of choreographer Agnes de Mille, from the 1940s through the 1960s. Six musicals are discussed in depth - Oklahoma!, One Touch of Venus, Bloomer Girl, Carousel, Brigadoon, and Allegro. Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Brigadoon were de Mille's most influential and lucrative Broadway works. The other three shows exemplify aspects of her legacy that have not been fully examined, including the impact of her ideas on some of the composers with whom she worked; her ability to incorporate a previously conceived work into the context of a Broadway show; and her trailblazing foray into the role of choreographer/director. Each chapter emphasizes de Mille's unique contributions to the original productions.

Several themes emerge in looking closely at de Mille's Broadway repertoire. Character development remained at the heart of her theatrical work work. She often took minor characters, represented with minimal or no dialogue, and fleshed out their stories. These stories added a layer of meaning that resulted in more complex productions. Sometimes, de Mille's stories were different from the stories her collaborators wanted to tell, which caused many conflicts. Because her unique ideas often got woven into the fabric of her musicals, de Mille saw her choreography as an authorship. She felt she should be given the same rights as the librettist and the composer. De Mille's work as an activist is an aspect of her legacy that has largely been overlooked. She contributed to revisions in dance copyright law and was a founding member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a theatrical union that protects the rights of directors and choreographers. Her contention that choreographers are authors who have their own stories to tell offers a new way of understanding the Broadway musical.

Agnes de Mille

Telling Stories in Broadway Dance

Kara Anne Gardner

Broadway Legacies

Contents
Foreword by Geoffrey Block
Preface: The Choreographer as Playwright
Acknowledgments
Note on Sources
Chapter 1: Bringing Ballet to Broadway
Chapter 2: The Dances of Oklahoma!: An Authorship, or Work for Hire?
Chapter 3: One Touch of Venus: Love Among Strangers with Forty Minutes for Lunch
Chapter 4: Fitting the "Civil War Ballet" into Bloomer Girl
Chapter 5: Playwriting Through Movement: de Mille's dances for Carousel
Chapter 6: Shaping the Story of Brigadoon
Chapter 7: Staging Allegro
Chapter 8: De Mille's Broadway Decline and Her Activist Legacy
Bibliography
Index

Agnes de Mille

Telling Stories in Broadway Dance

Kara Anne Gardner

Broadway Legacies

Author Information

Kara Gardner has spent two decades writing, teaching, and leading innovative programs in higher education. She completed a Ph.D. in music and humanities and a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She led classes on popular music, music of the Americas, music and gender, and dance history at the University of San Francisco and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 2013 she joined the founding team for Minerva, a new university created to equip students with adaptable skills using an innovative curriculum and immersive global travel. As the owner of Kara Gardner, Learning consultant, she designs meaningful and engaging learning experiences for students and professionals.

Agnes de Mille

Telling Stories in Broadway Dance

Kara Anne Gardner

Broadway Legacies

Reviews and Awards

Winner of 2017 Kurt Weill Prize

"Exhibiting meticulous scholarship built upon the examination of previously untapped source materials, Kara Gardner's new study offers genuinely groundbreaking research and keen insights. Consequently, our understanding of de Mille's innovative contributions can now be seen in an entirely new light. Written in a refreshingly lucid manner, Gardner's book will surely appeal not only to scholars but also to those general readers interested in Broadway's evolution."--Charles M. Joseph, Professor Emeritus, Department of Music, Skidmore College

"De Mille's influence on choreography and direction of Broadway musicals is unequivocal, which Kara Anne Gardner's well researched study faithfully confirms." --Mark Kappel

"[A] meticulously researched must-read for fans and students of dance, aspiring directors, playwrights, and weekend theatergoers alike; which is to say that de Mille's choreographic contributions to the American musical affected every aspect of the genre."--Talkin' Broadway

"Kara Anne Gardner's book is riveting--the chronicle of a proudly uncompromising artist who opened the door for such bold choreographers as Jerome Robbins and Michael Bennett: artists for whom, like de Mille, the story and characters came first."--Overture