Born on this day in New York City, acclaimed choreographer Agnes George De Mille (1909–1993) discovered her destiny at age twelve when she saw the beautiful ballerina Anna Pavlova dance.

“The experience,” De Mille said, “burned in a single afternoon a path over which I could never retrace my steps.”

The calling changed everything.

In 1943, she danced the lead in Rodeo at the Metropolitan Opera House, receiving an astonishing 27 curtain calls. From that triumph, De Mille created bold, story-driven choreography for Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945), earning the 1947 Tony Award for her groundbreaking work in Brigadoon. Her dances carried the rhythm of everyday life, transforming simple steps into something deeply human and unforgettable.

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what's next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark,” she reflected, trusting the unknown and inviting others to trust it, too.

With passion and vision, De Mille let movement tell the stories words could not. She urged her students, “Dance in the body you have,” believing authenticity was more beautiful than perfection. Dancer Tommy Tune praised her as “a bearer of great thought and light for all of us to bask in.”

An advocate for dance as a true art form in America, she helped establish the Heritage Dance Theater at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

“One of the good things about having some recognition,” she explained, “is that I can do something for the people I think ought to have more, and correct some of the matters fate fails to take care of.” Always, she kept her heart turned toward lifting others...sharing her light, step by step, with joy.