Agnes de Mille and The Dream Ballet in Oklahoma

Much to my surprise and delight I found that Disney+ was streaming the 1955 movie of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma (that duo’s first musical, created for the stage in 1943).  When the movie first came out I wasn’t a big fan, as I didn’t like the casting of the main leads. I loved the original Broadway cast album of Oklahoma that featured Joan Roberts, Alfred Drake and Celeste Holmes. None of them were in the movie so I did not see the movie until many years later.  What attracted me to watching the movie this month was that it is one of the few examples of Agnes de Mille’s choreography that we can see today.  Since I was a teenager and read Dance to the Piper (published 1952) I had always admired de Mille, who despite being discouraged by her parents from becoming a dancer, and facing numerous struggles as a dancer and choreographer, achieved success through her sheer determination.  

De Mille choreographed the movie just as she did the Broadway show. She was hired by Rodgers and Hammerstein following the 1942 success of the ballet Rodeo which she choreographed for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She asked Aaron Copeland to create the score for the piece.  It premiered in the fall of 1942 at the Met in New York City with deMille dancing the lead cowgirl.  She received 22 curtain calls, and the ballet’s success led to her choreographing the Broadway show which changed the use of dance in musicals.  For her, dance was not just an entertainment but rather a way to advance the emotions of the characters and the plot. 

The original lead dancers in the dream ballet were Marc Platt, Katherine Sergava and George Church.  They doubled for the leading actors, and John Martin in a review in The New York Times wrote that Ms. Sergava, dancing the alter ego of heroine Laurey, “with her strangely remote quality of beauty becomes the ideal heroine of a rather terrifying dream.” Neither Katherine Sergava nor George Church was in the movie.  Marc Platt was, but not in his original role of Curly.  Instead he had a role dancing and speaking as one of Curly’s pals.  The dance leads in the movie were Bambi Linn as Dream Laurey and James Mitchell as Dream Curly.  Bambi Lynn made her debut in Oklahoma as a dancer and later went on to a career as a ballroom dancer with her husband Rod Alexander.  James Mitchell began as a modern dancer and for 25 years was an assistant to de Mille.  

In the movie there is a very graceful transition from the actress Shirley Jones to the dancer Bambi Lynn where for just a moment they mirror each other and then the dream ballet really begins as Laurey runs into and is lifted by Curly and the two dance a very lovely duet.  A chorus of women soon joins in and it is a celebration with Laurey imagining her wedding, with a veil that floats down and is put on her head.  The scene builds as townspeople gather and an imaginary wedding is about to take place.  Curly begins to lift Laurey’s veil when suddenly instead of Curly it is Jud. Laurey flees from Jud and ends up running into a scene of women dancers (women of the night) doing the cancan as Jud watches and at times joins in with them.  Laurey continues to be a part of the scene, confused, sad and bewildered, and at times even trying to dance with them.  One of the dancers puts Laurey into Jud’s arms and Laurey flees from him and up an open stairway that dramatically is a dead end into open space. 

A transition within the ballet is then made with sound effects and lighting suggesting a thunderstorm or tornado, and a trio with Curly, Jud and Laurey begins.  Following their struggle, townspeople enter as the energy builds, ending with Jud killing Curly and lifting and carrying Laurey off.  This is where the dream ballet ends and the actor Jud appears ready to take the actress Laurey to the party as she awakens from her dream terrified!

As I watched the ballet several times I was struck by what a beautiful ballet de Mille created and what a wonderful score Richard Rogers created using melodies from all different songs in the musical.  The dancing is well executed and the way it was filmed added to the richness of the choreography.  I also

noted that it was danced on a good soundstage so the dancers could be at their best.  We are so lucky to have this available to watch, and I hope I have whet your appetite and you might watch this very well done sixteen minutes of dance.  I think that Disney+ still might have a 7-day free subscription trial.

There are other good dance moments in the movie too.  One comes about 24 minutes into the film, beginning with a kind of two-step which becomes a vigorous tap dance solo building into a full ensemble dance taking place at the train station. The ending is fun as three of the dancers end up on the roof of the train and two women dancers jump off the train into the arms of waiting men as the train leaves with the male dancer still dancing on the train’s roof!!  Another lovely moment is a women’s ballet to the song “Many A New Day.”  A square dance in Act II to the “Farmers and the Cowboys Should be Friends” is lively and is used to point out the tension that exists between the cowboys and the farmers, ending with a well choreographed full stage brawl!

While I have to point out that the story doesn’t really work for me anymore the dances sure do, along with the songs!  I grew up listening to the music and also remember my Mom mentioning how she had seen the show shortly after it opened with my Dad, who was in the army about to be shipped overseas. She had loved it and talked about the enthusiasm of the audience.  I wanted to know more about Oklahoma’s impact at the time related to World War II and found two excellent pieces online related to this.  In a blog written by Ryan Raul Banagale he points out that “Oklahoma can be seen as a work that captures an optimistic vision of America at a moment when its future remained very much up in the air.”  (https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-at-75-has-the-musical-withstood-the-test-of-time-94110 )

In an article in The New York Times, Todd S. Purdum mentions that “at every performance, there were rows of men in uniform, sitting in seats especially reserved for them, or taking standing room before shipping out overseas. 

Both of these articles clearly point out how Oklahoma changed musicals and how the show remains relevant today. I am thrilled we have this example of de Mille’s choreography to watch today.  Reading her book, and learning about her, strongly impacted my decision to be a dancer.  

In searching for a picture to include I found this wonderful interview of Agnes de Mille talking about the stage version of Oklahoma.  While it was uploaded to YouTube in 2013 it is actually from a PBS series done in 1979.  We see excerpts from the stage version.  It is curious that she never mentions the movie.  While the choreography in this clip is similar to the movie I think the movie is actually more interesting and stronger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW35nQUZdk4&list=RDiW35nQUZdk4&index=1

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