Carmen de Lavallade, who lived a decades-long career as dancer, actor, choreographer, teacher, and charismatic performer, has died, leaving behind the memory of a woman whose every movement left trails of glory and grace.
In her 2019 one-woman show “Life of a Legend,” then 87-year-old de Lavallade took the audience on a dazzling magical mystery tour of an amazing career, sharing memories like those of the time she brought Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to tears when, on a bare stage, in the flow of a single overhead spotlight, wearing a simple white dress with a gardenia in her hair, she captured the angst and anguish of legendary singer Billie Holiday in choreographer John Butler’s “Portrait of Billie,” which she danced with Alvin Ailey.
De Lavallade’s professional life was a treasure trove of similarly dazzling gems — anecdotes filled with men and women who are part of what dancer/choreographer/producer Dr. Glory Van Scott recently referred to as “a generation of geniuses.”
De Lavallade’s remarkable journey — inspired by her cousin Janet Collins, who, in the 1950s, was the first Black ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet — is often traced back to her days as a 17-year-old high school student in Los Angeles, Calif. It was then that her passion for dance and a calendar filled with modern dance classes at the Lester Horton dance studio prompted fellow classmate Alvin Ailey to join her, beginning a legendary journey for both. It is a legend that includes performing with the Lester Horton company, which Ailey would head briefly after Horton died, as well as dancing with Ailey, Jimmy Truitte, and others in the film “Carmen Jones” (1954), in a café scene in which her long ponytail flicks this way and that, punctuating the buoyancy of her every move.
Carmen de Lavallade, at the Kennedy Center Honors Dinner at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on December 2, 2017. Credit: U.S. State Department/Public Domain photo 
Geoffrey Holder, “Portrait of Carmen de Lavallade, 1976.” (Image courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art) 
Carmen de Lavallade with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. (Paul Kolnik photo) 
Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade in “Revelations.” (Eric Smith photo) 
Carmen de Lavallade (left) and Alicia Graf Mack. (Pete Monsanto photo) 
Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade. (Jack Mitchell photo © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution) 
Alvin Ailey, Carmen de Lavallade, and company in Alvin Ailey’s “Blues Suite.” (Jack Mitchell photo © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian) 
Carmen de Lavallade in John Butler’s “Portrait of Billie.” (Jack Mitchell photo © Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. and Smithsonian Institution)
The rest is, as they say, history when Ailey and de Lavallade were invited to appear on Broadway in the Truman Capote-Harold Arlen musical “House of Flowers.” In addition to the show’s stars Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll, Ailey and de Lavallade joined a cast that is now legendary, including Arthur Mitchell, Louis Johnson, Geoffrey Holder, Pearl Reynolds, Walter Nicks, Donald McKayle, and Glory Van Scott.
Van Scott, one of the few remaining members of that cast, recently recalled what was an indomitable generation. She also remembered that it was during the run of “House” that de Lavallade and Holder met and married.
From there, de Lavallade went on to be the muse for many brilliant choreographers, including Ailey, Holder, Agnes de Mille, and John Butler. She was described when being honored in 2017 by Kennedy Center chair David Rubenstein as “a national treasure whose elegance and talent as a dancer led to a career touching many art forms.” Her long career was so remarkable that Dance Magazine recently declared, “It is clear when we gave her the Dance Magazine Award back in 1967, she was just getting started.”
Highlights of her career include following in her cousin’s footsteps and becoming a principal with the Metropolitan Opera; appearing numerous times on television and in movies like “Odds Against Tomorrow” with Harry Belafonte; joining the faculty of Yale University’s School of Drama as both choreographer and performer in residence, numbering among her students a young Meryl Streep; and guesting with American Ballet Theatre in choreographer Agnes de Mille’s ballet “The Four Marys,” with Judith Jamison, Cleo Quitman, and Van Scott.
When many dancers were hanging up their leotards and tights, de Lavallade joined dancers Dudley Williams, Gus Solomons, Jr., and others to form Paradigm, creating a major shift in the concept of the older dancer and showing that age, truly, ain’t nothing but a number.
Borne out of that golden bond formed decades ago by that generation of geniuses in “House of Flowers” was a close relationship with Mitchell, founder of the critically acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem, which included, among other things, overseeing, with her son Léo Holder, the company’s successful production of Geoffrey Holder’s compelling dance “Dougla.”
De Lavallade’s influence is all-pervasive, and her imprint on American culture is everlasting. In a moving tribute to the legendary dancer on the night of the last 2025 performance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack declared de Lavallade “co-founder of the Ailey legacy and, for many of us, a blueprint.” Pronouncing de Lavellade’s history inseparable from the history of the AAADT, Graf Mack said she is “woven into our lineage, our values, and our commitment to excellence, humanity, and truth,” and dedicated the company’s performance to her.
“Carmen was present at the very beginning of the legacy of the Ailey organization,” Graf Mack said. “She helped shape the language, the spirit, and the courage that allowed Alvin — and so many others — to speak honestly through their art.”
It is a sentiment shared by so many in the dance world for a truly phenomenal woman and one, her son Léo Holder assures the AmNews, the dance community will be able to celebrate together in the not too distant future.