Ms. de Lavallade’s dance career includes ballets created for her by Lester Horton, Geoffrey Holder, Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, John Butler, and Agnes de Mille. She succeeded her cousin Janet Collins as the principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera, becoming the second black dancer to perform on that stage, and was a guest artist with the American Ballet Theater. She has choreographed for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Philadanco, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and productions of Porgy and Bess and Die Meistersinger at the Metropolitan Opera. Ms. de Lavallade also has had an extensive acting career as a member of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard, performing in numerous off-Broadway productions, and serving as an instructor at the Yale School of Drama where she taught many up and coming “super stars,” including Meryl Streep and Henry Winkler. Ms. de Lavallade and her husband, Geoffrey Holder, were the subjects of the film Carmen & Geoffrey (2005). Her most recent theatrical work includes Step-Mother by Ruby Dee (2009), Post Black by Regina Taylor (2011), and the Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire (2012). In 1999, she was named one of America’s 100 Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by Dance Heritage Coalition.