Carmen De Lavallade Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Carmen De Lavallade (born March 6, 1931) is a dancer, choreographer, professor and stage and film actress. Carmen De Lavallade was born in Los Angeles on March 6, 1931, to Creole parents from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was raised by her aunt who owned one of the first African American history bookshops on Central Avenue. Her cousin, Janet Collins, was the first African American prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera. De Lavallade began studying ballet with Melissa Blake at the age of 16 and after graduation from Thomas Jefferson High School in L.A., was awarded a scholarship to study... MORE

Carmen De Lavallade (born March 6, 1931) is a dancer, choreographer, professor and stage and film actress. Carmen De Lavallade was born in Los Angeles on March 6, 1931, to Creole parents from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was raised by her aunt who owned one of the first African American history bookshops on Central Avenue. Her cousin, Janet Collins, was the first African American prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera. De Lavallade began studying ballet with Melissa Blake at the age of 16 and after graduation from Thomas Jefferson High School in L.A., was awarded a scholarship to study dance with Lester Horton. De Lavallade became a member of the Lester Horton Dance Theater in 1949 where she danced as a lead dancer until her departure for New York City with Alvin Ailey in 1954. De Lavallade, like all of Horton's students, studied other art forms including painting, acting, music, set design and costuming as well as ballet and other forms of modern and ethnic dance. She studied dancing with ballerina Carmelita Maracci and acting with Stella Adler. In 1954, De Lavallade made her Broadway debut partnered with Alvin Ailey in Truman Capote's House of Flowers. In 1955, she married LESS