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Lithe, graceful American dancer, actress and choreographer Carmen Paula de Lavallade was born in Los Angeles of Hispanic/Creole parentage to Grace Grenot and Leo Paul De Lavallade. She grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighbourhood in East L.A., raised by her aunt Adele who strongly encouraged her ambition to become a dancer. Her idol and role model was her older cousin Janet Collins, a trailblazer who broke the colour barrier to become the first African-American prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera.
De Lavallade studied ballet from the age of sixteen. After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School (where she befriended future dance partner Alvin Ailey) she received a scholarship to pursue dance classes with the renowned teacher and choreographer Lester Horton. Between 1950 and 1954, she was lead dancer with the Lester Horton Dance Theatre, performing both ballet and various styles of contemporary and ethnic dance, including traditional Native American. During this period, she learned other art forms, such as painting and set decoration and eventually took acting classes under Stella Adler. To stamp her own measure of individuality upon them, De Lavallade also collaborated on the design of her many intricate costumes.
In December 1954, De Lavallade made her debut on Broadway alongside Alvin Ailey, Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll in Truman Capote's musical House of Flowers. During production, she met the Trinidadian actor, musician and dancer Geoffrey Holder (probably best known today as the enigmatic Voodoo priest Baron Samedi in the James Bond thriller Live and Let Die (1973)). Their subsequent marriage and creative partnership endured from 1955 until Holder's death in October 2014 and was chronicled in a 2005 documentary, entitled Carmen and Geoffrey (2005).
De Lavallade was featured as prima ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera in 1956 productions of Aida and Samson and Delilah. Off-Broadway, she appeared in Othello and Death of a Salesman. During the early 60s, she toured Europe and Asia as principal guest performer with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. With help from Lena Horne, who introduced her to executives at 20th Century Fox, De Lavallade was able to also break into motion pictures, appearing as exotic specialty dancers (often uncredited) in glossy productions like Lydia Bailey (1952), Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), The Egyptian (1954) and Carmen Jones (1954). She was cast in a rare dramatic role as the girlfriend of the main protagonist (played by Harry Belafonte) in Robert Wise's taut film noir Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).
In 1970, De Lavallade became choreographer, performer-in-residence at the Yale School of Drama and member of the Yale Repertory Company and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard. She taught movement to stars like Meryl Streep (with whom she co-starred in a 1975 Yale production of A Midsummer Night's Dream), Sigourney Weaver and Joe Grifasi, choreographed Porgy and Bess and Die Meistersinger for the Metropolitan Opera and staged productions for the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
De Lavallade's numerous accolades include New York's annual Bessie Award (2006), a Capezio Dance Award (2007), Duke Ellington Fellowship and Dance USA Awards (both 2010), an Obie Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in off-Broadway theatre (2016) and a Kennedy Center Honors Award (2017). She also received an honorary Fine Arts doctorate degree from the State University of New York/Juillard School in 2007. In June 2014, De Lavallade staged an autobiographical solo retrospective of her life and career, 'As I Remember It', which premiered at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts.
