Today and every day, we celebrate phenomenal women who move with purpose, who bravely dance through life's obstacles, and who are choreographing a better future.
This year we highlight three legends who inspire us to keep dancing to the beat of our own drum:
Agnes de Mille
Few figures have shaped American dance and musical theatre as profoundly as Agnes de Mille. Her career was long, influential, and at times turbulent, yet it transformed the language of choreography on both the ballet stage and Broadway. As a woman working in a male-dominated field during the mid-20th century, de Mille not only forged a groundbreaking artistic voice but also expanded opportunities and protections for choreographers across the United States.
In 1940, de Mille became a charter member of American Ballet Theatre, where she created her inaugural ballet Black Ritual. Though not a commercial success, it was historically significant for featuring African-American dancers in a serious ballet company, an early step toward greater inclusivity on the concert dance stage.
Her following work, Three Virgins and a Devil, proved a critical triumph and demonstrated her gift for narrative choreography. De Mille’s ability to fuse dramatic storytelling with classical technique would become the defining hallmark of her career.
Her international breakthrough came in 1942 with Rodeo, commissioned by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. De Mille herself danced the role of the Cowgirl at the Metropolitan Opera House, receiving twenty-two curtain calls and establishing a distinctly American movement style rooted in gesture, character, and folk idioms. This work marked the emergence of an authentic American aesthetic in ballet.
De Mille’s success in Rodeo led Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to invite her to choreograph Oklahoma!(1943), one of the most celebrated musicals in American history. With this production, de Mille introduced the now-iconic “Dream Ballet,” a revolutionary concept that used dance not merely as spectacle but as narrative psychology, revealing character motivations, fears, and desires through movement.
This innovation permanently altered the role of choreography in musical theatre, elevating dance to an essential storytelling device rather than decorative entertainment. Following Oklahoma!, de Mille choreographed a succession of landmark musicals, and in each production, she integrated expressive movement with dramatic narrative, influencing generations of choreographers who followed.
De Mille’s success continued with Brigadoon (1947), which earned her a Tony Award for Best Choreography. That same year, she made history by directing and choreographing Allegro, becoming the first choreographer, and notably the first woman, to both direct and choreograph a Broadway production. This dual role, managing a cast of nearly one hundred performers, marked a significant shift in artistic leadership for women in theatre. Her career during this period demonstrated not only creative brilliance but also administrative authority in an industry where women rarely held such positions of power.
Beyond the stage, de Mille’s influence extended into arts advocacy and labor reform. In 1959, she co-founded the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, today known as Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the first labor union dedicated to protecting the rights of theatrical directors and choreographers. De Mille served as president for several years and, at the time, was the only woman leading a labor union in the United States.
Her advocacy reached the federal level when she spoke before Congress in support of government funding for the arts. Her efforts contributed to the formation of the National Advisory Committee on the Arts and ultimately the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Agnes de Mille’s legacy lies not only in the ballets and musicals she choreographed but in the structural and artistic transformations she initiated. She redefined how dance functions within storytelling, pioneered an American choreographic voice, and championed the professional rights of directors and choreographers.
As a woman navigating, and reshaping, the artistic institutions of her time, de Mille stands as a powerful example of leadership, innovation, and resilience. Her work continues to resonate in contemporary ballet and musical theatre, reminding us that choreography can illuminate the inner lives of characters and elevate narrative art to new emotional depths.
Misty Copeland
When Misty Copeland was promoted to Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre in June 2015, she made history as the first Black woman to achieve that rank in the company’s 75-year history. But her influence reaches far beyond a single title. Copeland has transformed the cultural narrative around ballet - who belongs on stage, whose stories are told, and what leadership in dance looks like.
Her career is not only a story of personal excellence; it is a story of systemic change.
Copeland began ballet at the unusually late age of thirteen. In a discipline that often demands early childhood training, her ascent was extraordinary. At fifteen, she won first place in the Music Center Spotlight Awards. She studied on full scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet School and ABT’s Summer Intensive and was named ABT’s National Coca-Cola Scholar in 2000. That same year, she joined ABT’s Studio Company, entered the corps de ballet in 2001, and by 2007 became the company’s second African American female Soloist (and the first in two decades). In 2015, her promotion to Principal Dancer was more than a milestone; it was a cultural turning point.
Copeland’s impact extends well beyond performance. She has been a powerful advocate for equity in the arts, including campaigning for skin-tone inclusive pointe shoes and dancewear, challenging longstanding industry norms that centered only one standard of color. Through mentorship, philanthropy, and public speaking, she has dedicated herself to uplifting young dancers, especially girls and boys from underserved communities who may not see themselves reflected in ballet’s traditional imagery.
Misty Copeland is also a bestselling author. Her memoir, Life in Motion, co-written with journalist Charisse Jones, became a New York Times bestseller, offering an intimate account of perseverance, identity, and ambition. Her childrens' book, Firebird, illustrated by Christopher Myers, delivers a message of encouragement to young readers who dare to dream beyond limitations.
She later established the Misty Copeland Foundation to provide affordable, high-quality dance education to underserved communities, ensuring that access to ballet is not determined by zip code or socioeconomic status.
Misty Copeland’s influence as a woman in dance is both symbolic and structural. She has broken racial barriers while dancing at the highest level, expanded dance education, used her platform to advocate for inclusion, and continues to inspire young dancers worldwide.
Twyla Tharp
In the middle of 1960’s New York, a time when artists across disciplines were breaking conventions and challenging hierarchies, Twyla Tharp emerged as a force who would permanently alter the landscape of American dance. Fearlessly blending classical ballet with modern dance, jazz, and popular music, she carved out a new choreographic language, one that was athletic, witty, musically intricate, and unmistakably her own.
More than six decades later, Tharp stands as an American cultural icon. Yet her ascent was not merely artistic; it was groundbreaking for women in a field long dominated by male choreographers and institutional gatekeepers.
In 1965, Tharp choreographed her first dance, Tank Dive, and founded her own company, Twyla Tharp Dance. At a time when female choreographers were rarely granted power, this move signaled independence and ambition. In 1973, Tharp choreographed Deuce Coupe to music by The Beach Boys for the Joffrey Ballet. The piece is widely considered the first crossover ballet, fusing ballet dancers with contemporary movement vocabulary and pop music. At the time, pairing classical ballet with surf rock was radical, and even shocking.
She pushed the form even further with Push Comes to Shove (1976), created for Mikhail Baryshnikov. The work blended virtuosic classical technique with jazzy rhythms and theatrical wit, transforming Baryshnikov from a princely danseur noble into a sly, modern performer. Today, it is regarded as a definitive example of crossover ballet and a pivotal moment in American dance history.
Tharp brought her choreographic voice to Broadway, film, and television, including: Movin’ Out, Hair, and Ragtime. Over her career, she has created more than 160 works and received numerous honors, including a Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, recognition as a MacArthur Fellow, and designation as a Kennedy Center Honoree.
Her career has demonstrated that a female choreographer could command the highest levels of commercial and artistic success—without compromising intellectual depth.
Twyla Tharp’s influence as a woman in dance cannot be overstated. She:
• Built and sustained her own company in a male-dominated field.
• Bridged cultural divides between high art and popular music.
• Expanded ballet’s vocabulary without abandoning its technique.
• Proved that humor and rigor can coexist in serious art.
What once shocked audiences now feels foundational. Today’s seamless blending of genres — on Broadway, in ballet companies, in commercial dance, owes much to her audacity.
In a career spanning more than sixty years, Twyla Tharp did not merely adapt to change, she created it.