Reprieve
A Memoir
Description:... "In a lifetime of prodigious creative achievement, Agnes de Mille has always taken us places we have never been before. Her choreography for Oklahoma! helped change forever the American musical theater; her ballets Rodeo and Fall River Legend were instantly acclaimed as American classics. Her volumes of memoirs--Dance to the Piper; And Promenade Home; Speak to Me, Dance With Me; and Where the Wings Grow--have given wonderful perspectives on the life of an artist; The Book of the Dance and To a Young Dancer have brilliantly illuminated the art of the dance. Now in REPRIEVE Agnes de Mille shares with us the story of a great personal tragedy and moving triumph. On May 15, 1975, one hour before the curtain was to rise on a historic performance of her cherished Heritage Dance Theater, Agnes de Mille suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Her case offered curious and usually fatal aspects; for weeks doctors did not expect her to live. But gradually, with the help of doctors, her family, the power of love and determination, Agnes de Mille began to recover. Gradually her sight returned. Slowly the gibberish she had uttered became articulate speech. The right side of her body had been partially paralyzed; feeling never returned, but slowly she learned to walk again, to gesture, eventually even to perform. Overcoming a crippling illness taught Agnes de Mille many things, and she shares them in REPRIEVE. She learned new ways to cope with anger and fear, weakness and fatigue. She learned about patience and trust, discipline and compromise. The crisis touched those around her, bringing about the reconciliation of the two people closest to her. It led to discovery: 'I had the blessed experience of rediscovering that the man I had lived with thirty-two years ago was in love with me.' And it led to redefining essences, to revelations: 'I went into states of being I had never dreamt of before, states of perceiving and feeling that had nothing to do with achievement or business or duty or morals. I was alive.' Agnes de Mille is emphatically alive in this vital memoir. Refusing to be defeated by fate, she has brilliantly chronicled what is perhaps the greatest of her many triumphs."--Dust jacket.
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