AtLA Takeova Recognizes Debbie Allen for Black History Month!

Feb 2, 2015
2 min read

Debbie Allen is a choreographer, director, and dancer who has worked on such projects as Fame, West Side Story and Sweet Charity.

Debbie Allen hit it big in 1980, starring in a Broadway revival of West Side Story. Her performance earned her a Tony nomination and landed her a role as a dance instructor in the movie Fame (1980). The film evolved into a successful television spin-off in in 1982, in which Allen co-starred and won three Emmy awards for choreography. In 2001, Allen opened the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles. She also made other appearances on TV, starring in the sitcom In the House (1995-99), alongside LL Cool J, and in Grey's Anatomy (2005-13).

Actress, dancer and choreographer Deborrah Kaye Allen was born on January 16, 1950, in Houston, Texas, the third child of Pulitzer-winning poet Vivian Ayers, and dentist Arthur Allen. Allen was 3 when she began dancing. By the age of 4 she had become determined to be a professional performer, and her parents enrolled her in dance classes at the age of 5.

Allen's parents divorced in 1957, leaving mother Vivian as the main caregiver for Debbie and her siblings. Under Vivian's watchful eye, the Allen children were expected to complete writing assignments to encourage their creativity, and each of them had to perform household chores to establish independence.

Debbie's mother also taught her children to try new things. In 1960, on a whim, Vivian took Debbie and her siblings to live with her in Mexico. "She didn't know anybody in Mexico," Debbie later recalled in the Washington Post. "She didn't speak Spanish. She was looking for another level of experience...I respect that so much."