It wasn’t until 2011 that I learned that Agnes de Mille had been at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado during the 1930’s. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that the summer I spent at Perry-Mansfield as a teenager in 1958 was life-changing and that Agnes de Mille’s autobiography Dance to the Piper was also a big influence during that period in my life. In 2011 I was a member of the Board of Directors of Perry-Mansfield and was asked to chair a book-signing event for Dorothy Wickenden’s new book Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West. In discussion with Dorothy I learned that the reason she wanted to have her book signing at Perry-Mansfield instead of the local bookstore was she wanted square dancing and if possible an excerpt from de Mille’s Rodeo to be part of the event. She felt this would set the ideal mood for her book and draw people out to the event.
Wickenden’s book Nothing Daunted tells the adventures of two young women, graduates of Smith College, who in the summer of 1916 left their society life in New York state and headed to Colorado to teach school in rural northwestern Colorado. One of the women was Dorothy’s grandmother, and nearly a hundred years later Dorothy discovered her grandmother’s letters. These letters helped her recreate the womens’ saga.
Perry-Mansfield was founded in 1913 by two other Smith College women, Portia Mansfield and Charlotte Perry. “The Ladies,” as they were usually referred to, shared their purpose in the following statement: “Creative practice through art and nature manifests in a thoughtful, insightful, and courageous life.” Certainly Charlotte and Portia knew the two women written about in Nothing Daunted.
C. S. Carley, in one of her blogs at Castleandcoffeehouse.com, notes, “The story of Agnes de Mille in Steamboat Springs is one of the many historical nuggets in Dorothy Wickenden’s bestselling book . . .” Carley goes on to describe de Mille’s stay in Steamboat:
During her stay . . . ,Agnes asked to be taken to a square dance, an important regular social event in the local schoolhouse. Not only was she fascinated with the actual cowboys and girls dancing in actual cowboy boots, but she went out on the floor and did a solo turn, to much applause.
I encourage you to click this link and read the full blog by C.S. Carley. https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2013/09/14/russian-cowboys-in-colorado/
The event for the book signing was planned. It included some square dancing, a duet from Rodeo and of course Dorothy Wickenden speaking.
Sharing the duet from Rodeo was the beginning of a project by Linda Kent, who at the time was the director of dance at Perry-Mansfield. She brought the project to culmination two years later by presenting an
excerpt from the second half of the dance as part of the 100-year celebration of the performing arts camp.
Paul Sutherland is the sole répétiteur of the ballet Rodeo, having been appointed by the choreographer in 1979. There is a wonderful article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that shares the important role Rodeohas played in Sutherland’s life. He first saw the ballet when he was 18, when someone gave him a ticket. The next morning he signed up for a ballet class and two years later he had a contract with The American Ballet Theatre. His first role was dancing one of the cowboys in Rodeo. Here’s the link to the article which shares additional information. http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2011/12/03/stager-paul-sutherland-is-still-in-the-saddle/
Linda arranged for Paul to come to Juilliard and teach the dance to her student Ellie (who would be a scholarship student at Perry-Mansfield in the summer), and to a young man from the Ailey BFA program, who also planned to be at P-M. When the dancer from the Ailey program was unable to attend, Ellie (then at P-M), taught the dance (with Paul’s permission) to Raffles Durbin, who was a scholarship student from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.
The event was a success with a packed, enthusiastic crowd.
(Credited to John F. Russell/Staff)
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