Dancer, actor, and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade died December 29 in Englewood, New Jersey after a brief illness. The news was confirmed by her son, Léo Holder, to The New York Times. She was 94 years old.

Ms. de Lavallade was a highly accomplished ballerina, from a talented family. Her cousin, Janet Collins, was the first prima ballerina of Creole/African descendant at the Metropolitan Opera. At the age of 16, Ms. de Lavallade began study with dance teacher Melissa Blake, later achieving a scholarship to study dance with Dance Theater of Los Angeles founder Lester Horton. 

In 1949, Ms. de Lavallade became a member of the Lester Horton Dance Theater, performing as a lead dancer until she split from the company to dance with Alvin Ailey in 1954. Alongside Ailey, Ms. de Lavallade made her Broadway debut in Truman Capote's musical House of Flowers, with Ms. de Lavallade and Ailey partnered in a series of star-making dance scenes.

In 1955, Ms. de Lavallade married one of her House of Flowers costars, Geoffrey Holder. The pair would soon become one of the most powerful power couples in the dance industry. Ms. de Lavallade choreographed her signature solo "Come Sunday" for Holder, interpreting the black spiritual as performed by Odetta. 

In 1956, Ms. de Lavallade danced the prima ballerina in Samson and Delilah and Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, following in her cousin's footsteps. Ms. de Lavallade remained heavily associated with Ailey, serving as the principal guest performer for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company tour of Asia. In some countries, the company was even billed as the de Lavallade-Ailey American Dance Company. 

She appeared on screen in a number of films, following a vote of confidence by Lena Horne, which led to much of her work in the 1950s being preserved on film. Her film credits include 1954's Carmen Jones, 1959's Odds Against Tomorrow, and 1996's Lone Star. In the mid 1960s, she danced in Agnes de Mille's American Ballet Theatre productions of The Four Marys and The Frail Quarry.

While much of Ms. de Lavallade's career was spent on great dancing stages, she did return to Broadway on occasion, including 1963's Hot Spot, 1964's Josephine Baker, 1993's The Boys Choir of Harlem and Friends, and the 2012 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. In the 1990s, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera as the choreographer for productions of Porgy and Bess and Die Meistersinger.

Beginning in 1970, Ms. de Lavallade began teaching at the Yale School of Drama as a choreographer and performer-in-residence. She staged a variety of musicals, plays, and operas with the students, who included Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Durang, and Wendy Wasserstein. Ms. de Lavallade became a member of the Yale Repertory Theater. 

In 2004, Ms. de Lavallade received the Black History Month Lifetime Achievement Award and the Rosie Award (named for Rosetta LeNoire and "given to individuals who demonstrate extraordinary accomplishment and dedication in the theatrical arts and to corporations that work to promote opportunity and diversity"), the Bessie Award in 2006, and the Capezio Dance Award in 2007, as well as an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York through Purchase College in 2006 and Juilliard School in 2008.

In 2016, Ms. de Lavallade received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Obie Awards. In 2017, she received the Kennedy Center Honors Award, which she accepted while resisting the awards connection to the White House, and then-President Donald Trump. In 2023, she was presented with the Richmond Ballet's Lifetime Achievement in Dance Award.

Ms. de Lavallade was predeceased by Mr. Holder in 2014. She is survived by their son, Léo Holder.