Robert Pagent with William Schneider (4/24/2021)

Published: April 26, 2021, 11:30 a.m.

For Video Edition, click and subscribe here: https://youtu.be/PXUcA3xjmuc https://www.actorsguild.org Robert Pagent was a dancer and choreographer who appeared in the original productions of ''Oklahoma!'' and ''Carousel'' and a pioneering director of dance for television during its early years. Mr. Pagent's career took him from stage productions of European classical ballet troupes in the 1930s to televised Miss America pageants in the 1960s. Born Robert Weisser in Pittsburgh, he moved with his family to Gary, Indiana, where he was recruited to partner women at a ballroom dance studio because of his height, 6 feet 2 inches. Unusual for a male dancer at the time, his height helped him land a job with the Ballet Russe, where he appeared from 1937 to 1941. After losing his job by participating, along with 15 other company dancers, in a strike in Havana for better wages, Mr. Pagent was invited to join the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In 1942 he adopted the stage name Robert Pagent and was the square-dance caller in the premiere of Agnes de Mille's cowboy-themed ballet, ''Rodeo,'' one of the first attempts to introduce the imagery of the West into classical dance. He became a close friend of de Mille and the choreographer Jerome Robbins. In 1943 he replaced an injured dancer in the original cast of ''Oklahoma!'' one night after the show opened, and two years later danced the Carnival Boy in the premiere of ''Carousel,'' both choreographed by de Mille. . In 1999 he was invited by the University of Minnesota to reconstruct de Mille's 1943 ballet, ''One Touch of Venus,'' for a video recording.