Amanda McKerrow, who danced principal roles at American Ballet Theater from 1982 until her retirement in 2005, told Michael Huebner what Agnes de Mille was like:

Riveting. She demanded your full attention, and was demanding in terms of what she needed you to do. I had worked with her on “Rodeo” and had so much respect for her. She had such an amazing vocabulary. The difficult thing about talking with her was that she was always correcting your grammar. During that first run-though, she looked at me and gave a “thumbs down.” I didn’t know how to interpret that, but some of the more dramatic sections weren’t saying what she wanted to say.”