Virginia Bosler

Virginia Bosler, known by her friends as “Winkie” (a nickname since childhood), was born September 23, 1926 in Newton, Massachusetts. Her father was a maritime engineer, and her early years were spent relocating frequently along the eastern coast. At seven years old, Virginia moved to Great Neck, Long Island, and was enrolled into ballet classes by her mother, who was concerned about her daughter's posture. For three years, Virginia studied with Mikhail Mordkin and the Swobodas before moving to New London, Connecticut, where her dance studies halted until high school.[1]

Virginia Bosler (middle) at Jacob's Pillow (summer 1943)
Virginia Bosler headshot circa 1947

Virginia resumed her dance training while attending the progressive Cherry Lawn High School in Darien, Connecticut, focusing on modern and folk dancing under Hanya Holm protégée, Laura Morgan. She first attended the renowned Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts, at the age of 15 between her sophomore and junior years of high school. Virginia returned for the following two summers as a scholarship student; dancing in the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, learning Pilates directly from its creator, Joseph Pilates, and earning the respect of Jacob's Pillow founder, Ted Shawn.

Virginia Bosler in the original Broadway production of Brigadoon (1947)

After what Virginia considers a “disastrous”[2] year at Barnard College, Virginia left school to pursue a dance career. She studied with Hanya Holm as well as Cia Fornaroli and Merce Cunningham. Virginia's big break came in the spring of 1946 when was cast in the tour of Bloomer Girl, choreographed by Agnes de Mille and starring Nanette Fabray. After observing Virginia's performance in the tour over the next nine months (which took Virginia to cities such as Toronto, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC), Agnes requested that she fly to New York while on the Pittsburgh tour stop to audition for the upcoming Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Lowe show, Brigadoon.

Virginia Bosler in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952

Virginia originated the role of Jean MacLauren in Brigadoon (1947), a role she would play for over a year and a half on Broadway, for another year on tour, and repeat in the 1954 film adaptation (though her role would be drastically reduced from the stage version). Virginia would go on to perform on Broadway in the Agnes de Mille-directed Cole Porter musical Out of This World from 1950 to 1951 (starring Charlotte Greenwood and choreographed by former teacher Hanya Holm); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (a replacement and member of the closing cast in 1951); the Nancy Walker flop musical A Month of Sundays, which closed out of town in January 1952; and Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952 (1952–1953).

Virginia Bosler in Brigadoon (1954)

Though officially a member of the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre for a national tour from 1953 to 1954, Virginia was absent for a large portion of the engagements as she was filming Brigadoon from December 1953 to March 1954 in Culver City. Just as the film of Brigadoon premiered in September 1954, Virginia returned to Culver City to shoot her scenes for the film version of the Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II stage hit, Oklahoma!, for which Agnes de Mille recreated and adapted her original stage choreography. Both Brigadoon and Oklahoma! are notable for being two of the few motion pictures shot twice during principal photography using separate cameras and “takes” to accommodate the new experimental widescreen processes of CinemaScope and Todd-AO, respectively. As such, different versions of both films exist using the same prerecorded songs, though it is unclear whether the “flat” version of Brigadoon was ever released (it isn't available on home video).

Virginia Bosler in Oklahoma! (1955)

A European stage tour of Oklahoma! (headlined by Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy)[3] followed in the summer of 1955 with stops in Paris, Rome, and London, and the film opened in its first-run Todd-AO 70mm engagements in October. Virginia returned to the role of Jean MacLauren for several revivals of Brigadoon, most notably at New York City Center in 1957 and 1963. She also appeared in the live “Producers’ Showcase” NBC broadcasts of Bloomer Girl and Jack and the Beanstalk in 1956.

Virginia Doris in 1984

Just before turning thirty, Virginia married Hubert Alexander Doris, a professor of music at Barnard College, in 1956. She also appeared in a few short-lived non-musical roles on and off Broadway before effectively retiring from public performance in 1963. A quiet family life followed with Virginia as the wife of an esteemed professor and mother of two adopted children, Alexander and Julia.

By the end of the 1970s, Virginia began to study Labanotation, a method to document and preserve choreography in print. Over the next 10 years working for the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City, she created Labanotation scores for works by choreographers such as George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Eugene Loring, and Richard Englund, all of which are stored within the archives at the New York Public Library for future study and performance.

Virginia Bosler in A Month of Sundays (1951)
Virginia Bosler in Red Roses for Me (1955)

Virginia began a new career teaching yoga in 1997 at the age of seventy years old. Her husband Hubert died on June 8, 2008, at their home in Hancock, Maine. Now in her 90s, “Winkie” is living out a quiet retirement in Ellsworth, Maine.

Virginia Bosler in If Five Years Pass (1962)
Virginia Bosler at 8 years old (spring/summer 1935)

Theatre

Film

TV

References
  1. Dance Magazine, September 1957, pg. 40 - "Virginia Bosler" by Saul Goodman
  2. "Dance On" broadcast from June 17, 1984. Interview with Virginia "Winkie" Doris. Program from the public access cable television series Dance On: With Billie Mahoney. Taped at Metro Access Studios, New York. Produced by Video Workshop for Dance and Theatre
  3. Jones, Shirley (2014). Shirley Jones: A Memoir. New York: Gallery Books. ISBN 1476725969.
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