Carmen De Lavallder Memorial Cover

Carmen de Lavallade (March 6, 1931- December 29, 2025), a dancer who defied boundaries of race and age, touched almost every realm of the performing arts in a career of over six decades. She worked in theater, opera, nightclubs, film, and television alongside 20th-century luminaries like Alvin Ailey, Lena Home, Agnes de Mille, Harry Belafonte, Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, and her husband of 59 years, the Tony Award-winning artist, actor, and dancer Geoffrey Holder (1930-2014). Ms. de Lavallade was foremost a muse whose versatility and creative drive never were confined for an extended period to any single dance or theater company. She performed with many companies, including Lester Horton Dance Theater,
American Ballet Theater, and choreographed for or appeared with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theater of Harlem, and the Metropolitan Opera. Her noble bearing, high cheekbones, long, sinuous torso, and impressive wingspan revealed a wide portfolio of characters experiencing torment or ecstasy, including the troubled jazz singer Billie Holiday, the martyred Joan of Arc, and a sexually liberated Scheherazade. Duke Ellington once called her "one of the most ravishing women in the world." Ms. de Lavallade continued to dance through her 80s. In 2017, she received the Kennedy Center Honors award for lifetime achievement and contributions to American culture.