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.”
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
Of all the dancers who write, I think Agnes de Mille was the most eloquent