Homegrown

The director of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo shook his head violently over the new ballet. Said he: "You might as well put a mustache on a Rubens." He tried to get Rodeo--and the American woman who composed it--thrown out of the company.

The director failed, and a few nights later, the Ballet Russe presented Rodeo at the Met. To almost everyone's surprise, Manhattan thought it was wonderful.

That night in 1942, Choreographer Agnes George de Mille got her first taste of success. Last week, when the Ballet Russe presented Rodeo again, with Agnes dancing as the Cowgirl, the boots and blue-jeans no longer seemed strange; her wistful story of a girl who could rope a steer, but not a man, had the feel of a familiar classic. One reason: Theatre Guild scouts had seen that first performance of Rodeo and persuaded Agnes to do the dance numbers for Oklahoma! Then followed One Touch of Venus, Bloomer Girl, Carousel, Brigadoon, Allegro and this year's brilliant ballet, Fall River Legend.

Agnes remembers herself as a plump and awkward little girl, who liked to scurry about the house, at the age of seven, imitating Pavlova. Her father, Playwright William de Mille (a brother of Producer Cecil B.), thought her imitation preposterous. Agnes could be anything she wanted, he said--except a dancer.

"Then," says Agnes, "my sister's arches fell." The doctor prescribed ballet lessons.

Agnes took them too. She soon began inventing her own steps, kept up her practicing all through school. But Agnes was no ballerina ("Nothing gave, nothing stretched"). Ballet refused to take her seriously.

Agnes borrowed money, gave recitals, lost money. Then she went to England, "where it was cheaper to fail." Gradually, critics began to applaud her ballets for their witty pantomime and fast, fresh paces. The Ballet Russe finally asked her for a choreography. Result: Rodeo.

Now, at 39, Agnes de Mille doesn't dance often, but when she does, her mixture of classical precision and homegrown humor sets balletomanes cheering. As the nation's top choreographer, she is usually too busy doing other things. By bringing ballet to Broadway, she thinks, she has "opened the door for dancing" in the U.S. Sometimes she suspects she has opened the door too far: she has already seen too much imitation De Mille on Broadway. Says Agnes: "It's shocking."

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