{"id":11735,"date":"2026-02-08T13:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=11735"},"modified":"2026-02-08T13:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:33:17","slug":"style-icon-and-pioneer-of-modern-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=11735","title":{"rendered":"Style Icon and Pioneer of Modern Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tAmerican actress, choreographer, dancer, Kennedy Center Honoree and fashion swan, Carmen de Lavallade was, as WWD wrote in 1983, \u201cvery beautiful.\u201d The New Orleans native and first Black prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera was a pioneer of modern dance. It was de Lavallade who introduced Alvin Ailey to the art form. She first caught Women\u2019s Wear Daily\u2019s attention in the late 1950s, her impeccable style a highlight of its \u201cThey Are Wearing\u201d column from Spoleto, Italy.<\/p>\n

\n\tDe Lavallade was married to Tony Award winner, dancer, painter and costume designer Geoffrey Holder, who designed many of her scene-stealing red carpet moments. The star couple often featured in WWD\u2019s New York City and Washington, D.C., \u201cEye\u201d pages. By 1983, when WWD\u2019s Arts & People editor revisited de Lavallade at her SoHo loft, she was already an icon of style and the world of dance.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn celebration of Black History Month and continued coverage of Black creatives\u2019 contributions and influence in fashion, WWD is revisiting an archival interview with Carmen de Lavallade from Dec. 6, 1983, as she prepared to dance with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during its 25th anniversary season.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Carmen<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tCarmen de Lavallade attends a party, celebrating the play \u201cWoman of the Year,\u201d at the Milford Plaza Hotel in New York City on March 30, 1981. Tony Palmieri\/Fairchild Archive<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFairchild Archive<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tSome facts are not only indisputable but self-evident: the Grand Canyon is very deep; Mount Everest is very high; Carmen de Lavallade is very beautiful. Whether she is dressed in an evening gown \u2014 probably designed by her husband, Geoffrey Holder \u2014 or in a comfortable red sweater and jeans, her elegant dancer\u2019s body and her eloquent actress\u2019 face make the world seem much prettier than it did before she entered the room.<\/p>\n

\n\tDe Lavallade is dancing with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater this season as the troupe celebrates its 25th anniversary. Her appearance is appropriate, since she was Ailey\u2019s dancing partner on Broadway and in foreign tours, and with Lester Horton\u2019s company in Los Angeles, where both began their careers. Furthermore, as de Lavallade admits with a little shrug, she got Ailey started in dance in the first place.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cesar<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tCesar Romero and Carmen de Lavallade in \u201cTangiers,\u201d 1954. Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\tEver Since High School\t<\/h2>\n

\n\t\u201cAlvin and I grew up together in Los Angeles,\u201d she says. \u201cWe went to junior high and to high school together, and in high school he was on the gymnastics team. I used to stop by to watch them practice, and he was so pretty I said, \u2018You ought to dance.\u2019 He did floor gymnastics \u2014 it was beautiful, so painfully slow that it looked as if they were moving underwater.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor de Lavallade, slow, controlled steps are still the most exciting aspects of dance. \u201cThe fast things are showy and dramatic,\u201d she explains, \u201cbut the slow steps are more difficult \u2014 they require so much control \u2014 and you really can\u2019t see how they are done.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe requirements for young dancers are much greater now than they were when Alvin and I started, back in the \u201950s. Audiences are demanding more and more gymnastic, acrobatic things. I start tensing up when I watch. But I think we\u2019re changing again; I think people are starting to look for character and dramatic values in dance, the way they used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Carmen<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tCarmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder attend an event at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 1987. Guy DeLort\/Fairchild Archive<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGuy DeLort\/Fairchild Archive<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tMuch as she admires the technical prowess of contemporary dancers, de Lavallade smiles as she recalls that American Ballet Theater used to be a collection of individuals. \u201cNow, they all look alike, they\u2019re all the same type, they\u2019re all the same scale. Even the idea of what a dancer looks like has changed \u2014 today ballet dancers and modern dancers look alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe similarity, she says, is not merely a question of physique, but of technique as well. \u201cLester [Norton] treated everyone as an individual. We did not do all the fancy things they do now, but when we danced, we danced; technique was taken for granted. We all had a sense of style.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dancer<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tDancer Carmen de Lavallade photographed at her SoHo apartment on Nov. 21, 1983, in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPenske Media via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOne reason for the individuality of many dancers in the late 1950s and early \u201960s, de Lavallade says, was the lack of large resident companies. \u201cWho could afford to keep a company?\u201d she asks, smiling to provide the answer. \u201cCompanies shared people; it was the only way to survive. I would rehearse with Donnie McKayle and then run upstairs and work with Sophie Maslow, who was preparing a Chanukkah Festival. We were all trying to create something out of nothing, and we all had to be versatile.\u201d (Donald McKayle, like Ailey, helped bring the Black experience to the dance stage.) <\/p>\n

\n\tStanding in the loft she shares with Holder, walking among the sculptures, paintings and mechanical toys he has collected \u2014 she refers to the place as \u201cGeoffrey\u2019s playpen\u201d \u2014 de Lavallade remarks that dancers are not the only people who seem to lack a sure sense of style these days. She teaches movement to actors, and she finds an astounding number of them have terrible posture.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NEW<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tCarmen de Lavallade attends the 2011 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater\u2019s opening night gala at New York City Center. Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t play a Shakespearean king \u2014 you can\u2019t make a speech in public with authority \u2014 if you hunch over like this.\u201d She curves her shoulders and sinks her chest in demonstration. \u201cNobody will believe you \u2014 there\u2019s no authority there, and the actor feels it as much as the audience does. Our clothes don\u2019t demand good posture \u2014 they\u2019re sloppy, and they hide the body. Jeans and sweatshirts and all those things are comfortable, but they don\u2019t make you stand up and show yourself off; don\u2019t give you a sense of your body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDe Lavallade is not sighing over good old days. She is, quite obviously, delighted that dance is reaching a wide audience, that dancers can achieve high levels of technique, that companies can get enough work and enough financial support to hold together and even celebrate 25th anniversaries.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, she would like to see more dancers who show an old-fashioned awareness of style and of individuality. \u201cOne problem with big companies,\u201d she says, \u201cis that most of the dancers in them have to go by the book. If you go by the book, you\u2019re dull.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2014 Joseph H. Mazo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American actress, choreographer, dancer, Kennedy Center Honoree and fashion swan, Carmen de Lavallade was, as WWD wrote in 1983, \u201cvery beautiful.\u201d The New Orleans native and first Black prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera was a pioneer of modern dance. It was de Lavallade who introduced Alvin Ailey to the art form. She first caught Women\u2019s Wear Daily\u2019s attention in the late 1950s, her impeccable style a highlight of its \u201cThey Are Wearing\u201d column from Spoleto, Italy. De Lavallade was married to Tony Award winner, dancer, painter and costume designer Geoffrey Holder, who designed many of her scene-stealing red carpet moments. The star couple often featured in WWD\u2019s New York City and Washington, D.C., \u201cEye\u201d pages. By 1983, when WWD\u2019s Arts & People editor revisited de Lavallade at her SoHo loft, she was already an icon of style and the world of dance. In celebration of Black History Month and continued coverage of Black creatives\u2019 contributions and influence in fashion, WWD is revisiting an archival interview with Carmen de Lavallade from Dec. 6, 1983, as she prepared to dance with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater during its 25th anniversary season. Carmen de Lavallade attends a party, celebrating the play \u201cWoman of the Year,\u201d at the Milford Plaza Hotel in New York City on March 30, 1981. Tony Palmieri\/Fairchild Archive Fairchild Archive Some facts are not only indisputable but self-evident: the Grand Canyon is very deep; Mount Everest is very high; Carmen de Lavallade is very beautiful. Whether she is dressed in an evening gown \u2014 probably designed by her husband, Geoffrey Holder \u2014 or in a comfortable red sweater and jeans, her elegant dancer\u2019s body and her eloquent actress\u2019 face make the world seem much prettier than it did before she entered the room. De Lavallade is dancing with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater this season as the troupe celebrates its 25th anniversary. Her appearance is appropriate, since she was Ailey\u2019s dancing partner on Broad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}