Carmen de Lavallade

An accomplished actor, dancer, and choreographer, Carmen de Lavallade has amassed more than six decades of professional experience in the arts.

The Los Angeles native debuted at age 17 with the Lester Horton Dance Theater and appeared in four films, including Carmen Jones (1954) with Dorothy Dandridge and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) with Harry Belafonte. In 1954, she made her Broadway debut in House of Flowers alongside Alvin Ailey.

Her dance career includes ballets created for her by Lester Horton, Geoffrey Holder, Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, John Butler, and Agnes de Mille. Ms. de Lavallade succeeded her cousin Janet Collins as the principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera and was a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre. She has choreographed for Dance Theatre of Harlem, PHILADANCO!, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the Metropolitan Opera. She also had an extensive acting career, performing in numerous Off-Broadway productions including Death of a Salesman and Othello. Additionally, Ms. de Lavallade taught movement for actors at Yale, and became a member of the Yale Repertory Company and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard.

Ms. de Lavallade and her late husband, Geoffrey Holder, were the subjects of the film Carmen and Geoffrey (2005), which chronicled their 60-year partnership and artistic legacy. Her other work includes 651 ART FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance (2009), Step-Mother by Ruby Dee (2009), Post Black by Regina Taylor (2011), and the Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire (2012). A dance/theater work about her life entitled As I Remember It premiered in June 2014.

She received the Dance Magazine Award in 1967, an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Juilliard in 2008, the Dance USA Award in 2010, and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2017. Now in her eighties, Ms. de Lavallade continues to inspire generations of artists and audiences alike.