Tulsa Ballet closes season with a presentation of ‘Marilyn’

For a long time all Dani Rowe knew about Marilyn Monroe was a few iconic photographs and some bits of tabloid history.

But her interest in the woman who in the course of her 36 years came to embody the idea of the “blonde bombshell” in films such as “Some Like It Hot” and “The Seven Year Itch” took a turn about four years ago.

“I had been approached by a company to create a narrative-driven ballet that had a title everyone would recognize,” said Rowe, a former principal dancer with the Australian Ballet, Houston Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater who now is artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre. “About the same time, I was talking on the phone with my friend and collaborator, the costume designer Emma Kingbury, who happened to be watching the Met Gala.”

It was the year Kim Kardashian showed up to the event wearing the golden, sparkly, form-fitting dress Monroe had worn in 1962, when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy at a Madison Square Garden event.

“Emma had a lot of opinions about that scenario, and in the course of our conversation, almost off the cuff, she said we should do a ‘Marilyn’ ballet,” Rowe recalled. “She said it would just be heaven to create the costumes and reference the many wonderful designers who had the honor of clothing her, and that got my wheels turning.”

What helped cement Rowe’s resolve to transform the life of Marilyn Monroe into a ballet came after a meeting with art collector and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer, whose comprehensive collection of prints include a wealth of works by Andy Warhol.

“We had a beautiful conversation about Warhol and the images he created of Marilyn,” she said. “I was able to see a lot of these works close-up, and that really got me inspired. I started writing the libretto and really digging into research about Marilyn, her life, her history and just fell in love with her.”

Rowe’s labor of love, “Marilyn,” debuted in 2025 at Oregon Ballet Theatre. Tulsa Ballet, one of three companies that commissioned the work, is presenting “Marilyn” as the final production of the company’s 2025-2026 season — debuting just one month before what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday.

For Tulsa Ballet artistic director Marcello Angelini, Rowe’s ballet serves as the culmination of a season devoted to the idea of contrast and counterpoint.

“One of the things I wanted to do with this season was to present examples of how storytelling in ballet has evolved over the centuries,” he said. “The first half of this season featured two classics of 19th century ballet, ‘Giselle’ and ‘The Sleeping Beauty,’ which helped establish the traditions of how to tell a story through movement. And the second half of the season would focus on how ballet tells stories in the 21st century — stories that no longer deal with fairy tales and fantasy, but with real people and deep emotions.”

Kenneth Tindall’s “Casanova,” which the company performed earlier this year, was the first example with Rowe’s “Marilyn” as the second. 

“One aspect about this season that appealed to me was the fact that our two contemporary story ballets were going to be dealing with two iconic figures who are primarily known as sex symbols, and that each story would be told by a gender-specific team,” Angelini said. “The entire creative team for ‘Casanova’ was male, and ‘Casanova’ is a very masculine, very in-your-face kind of ballet.”

Angelini says when he was first shown Rowe’s concept for the ballet he told it was wonderful and that he knew Tulsa Ballet needed to do it.

“The team behind ‘Marilyn,’ on the other hand, is all women,” he said, “from Dani the choreographer to the composer of the original score (Shannon Rugani) to the designer of the costumes (Emma Kingsbury, who also designed the sets and costumes for Tulsa Ballet’s “The Sleeping Beauty”). And this is a story that is being told in a softer tone of voice, so to speak — women telling the story of one very exceptional woman.”

The story of “Marilyn” roughly follows the biography of the person born Norma Jeane Mortensen in 1926. 

Her career would include appearing in a number of acclaimed films, such as “All About Eve,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Bus Stop” and “Some Like It Hot,” but most of the roles she was given played up the “dumb blonde” stereotype that Monroe easily mastered and used to keep herself in the public eye.

Her life was also marred by tragedies, including several miscarriages, failed marriages and addiction to drugs designed to help her deal with pain and anxiety.

“The more I learned about her,” Rowe said, “the more I realized that throughout much of her life she was seeking acceptance, that unconditional love. She was abandoned by both her parents as a child, and I think that she was looking for that, especially in relationship to the men in her life — she was always looking for that unconditional fatherly love. And that became the main narrative line in the ballet.”

Rowe says the ballet includes elements designed to recall two of Monroe’s most iconic screen appearances — the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and the infamous “subway grate” scene from “The Seven Year Itch.”

“I have a feeling there would be some in the audience who would be upset if we didn’t include those scenes,” Rowe said, laughing.

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