{"id":7050,"date":"2020-12-18T01:58:25","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T01:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=7050"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:27","slug":"tomlinson-heritage-dance-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2020\/12\/18\/tomlinson-heritage-dance-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel Tomlinson Orbit: Heritage Dance Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Mel Tomlinson and Heritage Dance Theatre<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8365\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8365\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/Mobballet.org\/TheConstellationProject\/MelTomlinsonOrbit\/index.html#thisisheritageorbit\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8365 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-300x244.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-300x244.png 300w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-800x651.png 800w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-1024x833.png 1024w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-768x625.png 768w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-830x675.png 830w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-230x187.png 230w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-350x285.png 350w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-480x390.png 480w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig-600x488.png 600w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FullMelBig.png 1328w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Click above to explore the Mel Tomlinson \/ Heritage Dance Theatre orbit in MoBBallet&#8217;s Constellation Project<\/strong><strong style=\"font-size: 16px;\">\u00a0<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2017\/02\/26\/mel-tomlinson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mel Tomlinson<\/a> got his start at Heritage Dance Theatre thanks to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2020\/11\/23\/agnes-de-mille\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agnes de Mille<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In 1974, de Mille revived her company (Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre) under the name Heritage Dance Theatre, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where Tomlinson attended as an undergraduate. He toured with the company while still attending the school and performed all over the country, including at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>More about Heritage Dance Theatre<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-8265\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"243\" height=\"182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM.png 958w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-800x600.png 800w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-830x622.png 830w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-230x172.png 230w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-350x262.png 350w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-480x360.png 480w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-13-at-10.23.54-AM-600x450.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/>The Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre toured the United States from 1953 to 1954 under the aegis of producer Sol Hurok. The company offered an overview of Agnes de Mille&#8217;s choreography to that date, with the addition of Anna Sokolow&#8217;s <em>Short Lecture &amp; Demonstration on the Evolution of Ragtime<\/em> (set to music by Billy Taylor) and Danny Daniels&#8217;s <em>Razamatazz<\/em> (set to music by Jelly Roll Morton). In addition to several of de Mille&#8217;s early pieces, the company performed the <i>Bloomer Girl<\/i>\u00a0waltz and ballets based on the original dances for\u00a0<i>Brigadoon<\/i>\u00a0(<i>Ballad<\/i>, later reworked as\u00a0<i>Bitter Weird<\/i>) and\u00a0<i>Paint Your Wagon<\/i>\u00a0(<i>Gold Rush<\/i>, televised in 1958 with\u00a0Gemze de Lappe,\u00a0James Mitchell, and\u00a0Sono Osato). There is no known visual record of the full repertory, although archival footage exists of\u00a0<i>Ballad<\/i>\u00a0and the finale, &#8220;Hell on Wheels&#8211;1863.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There were twenty performers in the company, many of whom had worked for de Mille before. The leads were de Mille favorites James Mitchell, Gemze de Lappe and Lidija Franklin, with secondary roles taken by Virginia Bosler, tap dancer and choreographer Danny Daniels, Loren Hightower, the specialist in Scottish dance James Jamieson, Bunty Kelley, Casimir Kokic, Evelyn Taylor and Dusty Worrall.<\/p>\n<p>In 1974, de Mille revived the company as\u00a0the Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theatre, in association with the\u00a0University of North Carolina School of the Arts. <sup id=\"cite_ref-1\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup>Mel Tomlinson\u00a0was a principal dancer in the revived Heritage Dance Theatre.<sup id=\"cite_ref-2\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agnes_de_Mille_Dance_Theatre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Agnes De Mille Dance Theatre, Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-7970\" src=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"103\" height=\"103\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-420x420.jpg 420w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-230x230.jpg 230w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/mobballet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ecqwzc9kfodquipd9zpb-480x480.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 103px) 100vw, 103px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Casey Monteiro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mel Tomlinson and Heritage Dance Theatre Mel Tomlinson got his start at Heritage Dance Theatre thanks to Agnes de Mille. In 1974, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"universe-template.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[259,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mel-tomlinson-constellation","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7050"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9280,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7050\/revisions\/9280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}