Carmelita Maracci

Carmelita Maracci (July 17, 1908 – July 26, 1987) was an American concert dancer and choreographer who creatively fused ballet and Spanish dance techniques. She preferred an experienced audience, receiving admiration from other dancers and critics. Her performing and choreographic career began in the mid 1920s, and continued into the 1950s. She remained influential thereafter as a Los Angeles-based teacher.

Carmelita Maracci was born in Goldfield, Nevada, the daughter of Josephine Gauss and her second husband Joseph Maracci, a gambler and restaurateur. Her German French mother was a concert level pianist. Her father, Italian and Spanish, had considered a career singing opera; his father was first cousin to Adelina Patti (1843–1919), the great opera star. Hence she was christened Carmelita Patti Maracci. "Carmelita was brought up as Spanish." The mother told her daughter that she was born in Montevideo, Uruguay; Maracci only learned differently much later from her husband.

After the family moved to San Francisco she started her schooling in a convent. In Fresno she continued her dance lessons, and attended a private girls' school. In 1924, when sixteen, she relocated to Los Angeles to advance her dancing abilities. "Carmie was her mother's spoiled darling." On a nine-foot Steinway her mother played very well, music to which "Carmie danced, from the moment she could move--danced before she could walk," according to choreographer Agnes de Mille.

In the 1930s in Hollywood, the two young dancers Agnes and Carmelita hung out together. Agnes, many years later, described the situation and people:

"I found the atmosphere of the house, comforting. There was always a group of radicals, malcontents, and indigent writers, intermingled with painters and dancers, waiting to be recharged by Carmelita's personality, for she was great fun to be with."

Maracci's dancing was already special; it sparked "extravagant" rumors. "It is no ordinary experience to discover one evening that an intimate, a known, well-loved, daily companion, has genius." In her studio, the night before Maracci left for a San Francisco concert, de Mille saw her dance for the first time. She writes, "my jaw dropped". Adding, "This girl worked with thunder."

In 1926 Maracci performed as a soloist at the Hollywood Bowl, through her dance teacher Ernest Belcher. In New York she studied and as a soloist toured with a dance company. Returning to California, Maracci in seclusion created a new style of dancing. In Los Angeles in 1930, she made her "debut in a program of her own works" to music by Ravel, de Falla, Granados, and Schumann, at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. A similar New York City debut followed in 1937. Her arrival in New York was troubled by her sponsor's sudden default. Yet first at the 92nd Street Y then at other theater venues, her performances were well received.

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