Valerie Bettis

Valerie Elizabeth Bettis was born in Houston, Texas, in December 1919, to Royal Holt Bettis and Valerie Elizabeth Bettis (née McCarthy). Her father died when she was thirteen, after which her mother married Hugh Prather. Bettis began studying ballet in Houston at age ten and participated in theatrical productions throughout high school. After one year at the University of Texas, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, she relocated to New York City to study modern dance under Hanya Holm, performing and touring with Holm's company from 1937 to 1940. In 1943, she married Bernardo Segall, who served as her company's music director; the marriage ended in divorce in 1955. She later married Arthur A. Schmidt in 1959, who died in 1969. Bettis died on September 26, 1982, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan at the age of 62.

In 1941, Bettis established her own dance ensemble and launched her career as a solo dancer. Her 1943 solo work The Desperate Heart, which incorporated a poem of the same name by John Malcolm Brinnin, brought her early recognition. The New York Times dance critic John Martin placed it among the most outstanding performances of that year, and Louis Horst described it as the finest solo work in the modern dance repertory of the decade. In 1947, Bettis choreographed Virginia Sampler for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. The following year, she adapted, directed, and choreographed William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying as a dance play, fusing acting and movement into a single form. Martin called the result a completely authoritative work of art, while Doris Hering of Dance Magazine credited Bettis with possessing a deep feeling for both movement and drama. Her next dance play, Domino Furioso, premiered at the 1949 American Dance Festival to mixed reviews. In 1952, Bettis choreographed a ballet based on Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, which critics described as gripping and a stunning, explosive creation.

Bettis's Broadway career spanned 1948 to 1958 and encompassed both performance and choreography. She first engaged with musical theatre when she choreographed and performed in Glad to See You in 1944. Her 1948 performance in the revue Inside U.S.A., which ran for nearly 400 performances at the New Century Theatre and the Majestic Theatre, earned her a Theatre World Award that same year. She starred in the 1950 revue Bless You All, for which Life magazine praised both her dancing and her singing. Bettis also starred in Great to Be Alive! and appeared in the play Back to Methuselah and in Threepenny Opera.

Beyond the stage, Bettis contributed to film choreography. She choreographed Rita Hayworth's dances to the songs Trinidad Lady and I've Been Kissed Before in the 1952 film Affair in Trinidad, as well as the Dance of the Seven Veils in the 1953 film Salome.