Allen, Debbie 1950–

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Debbie Allen 1950–

At a Glance…

Secretly Enrolled in Ballet School

Launched Career on Broadway

Directed Television Series, Films

Sources

Dancer, choreographer, director, actress

The critics agree—Debbie Allen is impossible to typecast. “I’m an artist,” she told the New York Times. That’s probably the shortest definition for this dynamic and multifaceted performer, who is known as an actress, dancer, singer, choreographer, director, and producer. She has been blessed not only with boundless talent, but with a dedication and zeal that she brings to every project. She believes firmly in the value of hard work, and scoffs at the idea of fate. Good things happen, she knows, if you are ready when opportunity knocks.

Allen was born on January 16, 1950, the third child of Vivian Ayers, a poet, and Arthur Allen, a dentist. Their parents met while both were studying at Howard University. Arthur Allen began his dental practice in New York City, and eventually moved to Houston, where Debbie was born. “There were many lean years,” Allen reminisced in the Washington Post,”because Daddy’s practice was just starting. He would fix people’s teeth free if they had no money.” Her mother concentrated on her writing projects, but earned little. “There were times when we didn’t have things,” she continued. “But we didn’t worry about that. Because Momma made us know that we had each other and that the stars and universe belonged to us.” Allen is grateful to her mother, she told the Chicago Tribune, for”raising me with the concept of being a human being in the universe. The universe, that’s something much bigger than any street, any city, any state… It means you are not limited. You are boundless.”

Allen’s parents divorced in 1957, split apart, she believes, by conflict over her mother’s literary career. “There was too much pressure on their relationship,” she told the Washington Post. Her mother’s poetry was eventually nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; she also wrote plays and published a magazine.

Allen was three when she began dancing, and knew by the time she was four that she wanted to perform. “I was always imitating the ladies in the circus,” she told the Chicago Tribune. “I used to climb trees in the back of my house to get on the roof. I’d put on my bathing suit and put a towel around my neck and I would dance around.” When she was five, she began taking private dance lessons; at eight, inspired by an Alvin Ailey dance troupe performance, she was determined to pursue a theatrical career.

At a Glance…

B orn January 16, 1950, in Houston, TX; daughter of Vivian Ayers Allen (a poet) and Arthur Allen (a dentist). Married Winfred Wilford, 1975 (divorced, 1983); married Norman Nixon, 1984; children: Vivian Ntchole, Norman, Jr. Education: Howard University, B.A., 1971.

Appeared on Broadway in Purlie,1972; Raisin,1973; Guys and Dolls, 1977; Ain’t Misbehavin; 1979; West Side Story, 1980;Sweet Charity, 1986. Allen also choreographed Carrie in 1988. Appeared in films: Fame, 1980; Under Fire, 1981; Ragtime, 1981; The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, which she choreographed, 1979; Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, 1986; Mona Must Die,1994; Blank Check,1994; Forget Paris, which she choreographed, 1995. Appeared in television movies: Greatest Thing That Almost Happened, 1977;Midnight Special,1977; Ebony, Ivory, and Jade,1980; Women of San Quentin, 1983; and Stompin’ at the Savoy, which she directed, 1992; and miniseries: Roots: The Next Generation,1979, and Celebrity,1984. Wrote, choreographed, directed, and produced The Debbie Allen Show, 1988. Appeared in series: 3 Girls 3,1977; Fame, which she also choreographed and directed, 1982-87; A Different World, which she directed, 1988-92; and In the House,1995—.

Selected awards: Drama Desk Award and Tony award nomination for best supporting actress in musical (West Side Story), 1980; two Emmy awards for choreography, and a Golden Globe Award for best actress (Fame), 1982-83; Tony Award for best actress in musical (Sweet Charity), 1986; two Emmy nominations for The Debbie Allen Show, 1988.

Addresses: Office— Wolf-Kasteler, 1033 Gayley Ave., Suite 208, Los Angeles, CA 90024-3417.

The Allen children were groomed for an artistic life from early on (older sister Phylicia Rashad starred as Claire Huxtable on television’s the Cosby Show, and brother “Tex” Allen is a jazz musician). Their mother gave them writing assignments to encourage their creativity, and made each of them wash and iron their own clothes to foster independence. Each was assured, Debbie told the Washington Post, “I am the most special one.” Their daily recited motto was: “Be true. Be beautiful. Be free.”

In 1960 Vivian Ayers took Debbie and Phylicia to live with her in Mexico. “She didn’t know anybody in Mexico,” Debbie recalled in the Washington Post. “She didn’t speak Spanish. She was looking for another level of experience. She said, ‘It is time to go.’ I respect that so much.”

Secretly Enrolled in Ballet School

After about two years in Mexico, they returned to Texas. When Debbie was 12 she tried out for the Houston Ballet School, but it refused to accept black students. A year later a Russian dancer who saw her perform secretly enrolled her in the school, revealing the plot three months later. “By the time she showed me to them,” Debbie laughed in the Washington Post, “I was dancing so great they couldn’t deny it.”

Segregation circumscribed her life in other ways during those years, limitations she has not forgotten. “I grew up with water fountains at Woolworth’s that said ‘black’ and ‘white,’” she said in the Chicago Tribune. “I grew up not being able to go to the movie theater downtown; I grew up not being able to go to the amusement park, except one day a year; I grew up in a school system that was totally segregated.” But her mother prevented the Allen children from being stifled by the bigotry that surrounded them. Debbie declared in the Washington Post that seeing themselves as “citizens of the world” probably accounted for their success in such diverse pursuits.

In high school Debbie took ten dance classes a week and still managed to stay on the honor roll—probably one of the reasons she was nicknamed “Miss Versatile” by her fellow students. At 16 she auditioned as a classical ballet student for the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her hopes soared when she was chosen to demonstrate technique for other prospective students; however, the judges rejected her application, saying that her body was “unsuited” for ballet—a criticism often used to impede black dancers. She was advised to pursue modern dance instead.

Debbie was devastated. “When I called my dad,” she said in the Washington Post,”he thought I was joking.” On her return, her mother greeted her with the words, ‘“I can’t believe you failed.’ When she said that,” Allen recalled, “it was like a knife was turning and twisting in my heart.” Cruel as the remark may seem, today Allen finds it inspiring. “Even though we knew ultimately that it was a racial thing,” she continued, “she didn’t let me blame anyone but myself. That experience taught me to overcome what may seem to be limitations.”

After graduation Debbie joined her sister Phylicia at Howard University. The stinging memory of the incident in North Carolina, however, had taken all desire to dance from her. “I was just too devastated,” she told the Washington Post. “Then one night I was at a party. A man came over and said, ‘Your sister tells me you can really dance.’ ‘Yeah.’ I said. ‘Well, why don’t you come dance with me?’ he asked. ‘I can dance too.’” The man, who would become her mentor, was Mike Malone, well known in Washington, D.C. When he saw her perform, he was stunned: “My God,” he exclaimed,”you can dance.”

Returning to dance was practically a rebirth for Allen. She graduated cum laude from Howard in 1971 with a degree in drama. Her ambitions renewed, she set off for Broadway and the career she had dreamed of since childhood.

Launched Career on Broadway

Allen’s pursuit of a theatrical career was relentless. So determined was she to succeed in show business, she refused the “day jobs” that usually pay aspiring actresses’ rent. Recalling those early months, she told the Washington Post,“I pounded pavements, went to every audition. That was my spirit. Work at whatever you do, whether you get paid or not. I got that from my mother.” Her tenacity paid off in 1972 with a chorus line stint in Purlie, followed a year later by the role of Beneatha in the musical Raisin. She stayed with the show for two years before she branched out into television, working in commercials and series.

In 1975 Allen married Winfred “Win” Wilford, an actor and fellow cast member. A Southerner like herself, he hailed from Baton Rouge, her father’s hometown. “When he asked me to marry him,” she remembered in the Washington Post, “I asked him, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘So I can take care of you.’ That sounded nice. And we got married.” But like her parents’ marriage, this relationship was also highly pressured.

In 1977 Allen landed the starring role in an NBC series called 3 Girls 3; the show earned good reviews but was unable to garner the ratings that would have kept it afloat. The network pulled the plug. “Television chews you up,” she remarked in the Chicago Tribune, recalling her last day on the 3 Girls 3 set.“I was dancing at the time—wearing a fantastic Bob Mackie outfit—and I had great directors and writers and choreographers around me. When we finished—I mean, I did this dance like I’d never done it—I stood there and watched them start to tear the set down! And I sat down and cried because I was not ready to let go of what I had just given.”

The setback was temporary, however. During the same year, Allen portrayed Adelaide on Broadway in the musical Guys and Dolls, appeared in such television series as Good Times and The Love Boat, and landed a role in the TV movie Midnight Special. In 1979 she returned to Broadway in Ain’t Misbehavin’, and both appeared in and choreographed the film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

Her reputation as an actress burgeoning, Allen appeared in the 1980 Broadway revival of West Side Story, where her portrayal of Anita earned her a Tony Award nomination. In the same year, she won the part of dance teacher Lydia Grant in the movie Fame, a role with which she would become closely identified.

The film became a TV series in 1982, with Allen reprising her role and acting as the show’s choreographer. The series ran for one season on network television, and an additional four in syndication, netting Allen three Emmy awards for choreography. During her stint with the show, she began to direct whole episodes as well as dance numbers.

Success, unfortunately, exacted a personal toll. Allen’s marriage to Wilford collapsed under the strain of their careers; they separated in 1982 and divorced a year later. An old friendship, however, soon turned into romance. Allen had met Norman Nixon, then an all-star guard on the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, while shooting The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh. They were married in 1984, and have two children.

Marriage and motherhood have enhanced her career, Allen says, and making her even more creative, although she drew a fierce line between them in the book Starring Mothers: “As a professional woman, I have to be aggressive about my work since my field—directing and producing—is dominated by men. I’m a woman and a mother, though, and my family comes first. If I were injured and my career ended, [her daughter] Vivian would still be there and I’d have to raise her. If all the autograph hunters went away, she would still love me. It’s not a security blanket; it’s a fact of life.”

In 1986 Debbie Allen became a star in her own right when she headlined Bob Fosse’s revival of the musical Sweet Charity. Fosse gave her the freedom to interpret the role for herself—a daunting task, since it had been created on stage by the legendary Gwen Verdon and played in the film version by Shirley Maclaine. Allen’s performance was honored with a Tony Award.

Directed Television Series, Films

In 1988 Allen’s stature as a director was confirmed when she was chosen to direct (and eventually produce) the troubled Cosby-show spinoff, A Different World, which was floundering after its first season. “What I saw was some very engaging and compelling characters and here and there a good story,” she told the New York Times. “But mostly it was so silly.” Allen beefed up the scripts with meatier plots and more realistic characters, addressing serious social and political topics while maintaining the show’s comedie edge. She not only saved the series, she boosted it to the top of the ratings.

Allen’s talents were further highlighted in 1989, when she directed and choreographed her first movie, the Disney TV musical Polly. The film, an adaptation of the novel Pollyanna, was reset in a black Alabama community of the 1950s. The story gently reflects the rising tide of the civil rights movement, a dose of reality on which Allen insisted. She (and her husband) even composed one of the show’s songs, a gospel number called Stand Up, which is sung by a cast of 200. “I’m good with big groups of people,” she told the Chicago Tribune.

In the 1990s Allen continued her association with A Different World and moonlighted on other projects, like the network special Motown 30: What’s Coin ‘ On. The show celebrated the Motown record label’s thirtieth anniversary, and included a retrospective, choreographed by Allen, that traced black-inspired dance from Africa through the twentieth century. She also directed and starred in Stompin’ at the Savoy, a TV movie about four black women whose lives centered around Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in the years before World War II.

Despite her many accomplishments, Debbie Allen is not one to rest on her laurels. “Like you, I am still a work in progress, “she told graduates of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts West, a speech that was quoted in the Washington Post. She urged them to learn from their mistakes, calling failure “the really bad ‘F-word.’ It’s something you can’t be afraid of, because you’ll stop growing… And the next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.” She should know.