page_title: Virginia Bosler
hierarchical_section_title: Virginia Bosler
caption_attribution_description: English: Virginia Bosler in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952
context_page_description: Virginia Bosler, known by her friends as “Winkie”, 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.
  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.
context_section_description: 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.
  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.
  
  After what Virginia considers a “disastrous” 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 originated the role of Jean MacLaren 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 was drastically reduced from the stage version). Virginia would go on to perform on Broadway from 1950 to '51 in the Agnes de Mille-directed Cole Porter musical Out of This World (choreographed by her former teacher Hanya Holm, and starring Charlotte Greenwood), later appearing in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (as a replacement and member of the closing cast in 1951); the flop musical A Month of Sundays (starring Nancy Walker), which closed out of town in January 1952; and Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952 (1952–1953).
  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).
  A European stage tour of Oklahoma! (headlined by Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy) 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 MacLaren 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.
  Just before turning thirty, Virginia married Hubert Alexander Doris, a professor of music at
caption: Virginia Bosler in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952
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