Carmen de Lavallade, an accomplished actor, dancer and choreographer, died on Monday at the age of 94. She was known for her decades-long career in the performing arts and collaborations with some of entertainment’s most illustrious figures.

She died of a short illness after being hospitalized in Englewood, New Jersey, her son, Léo Holder, confirmed to The New York Times.

Carmen de Lavallade worked with Alvin Ailey, Harry Belafonte, Josephine Baker and more

Born in Los Angeles in 1931, de Lavallade started her career with the Lester Horton Dance Theater when she was 17 years old. She went on to star in four feature films, including 1954’s Carmen Jones with Dorothy Dandridge and 1959’s Odds Against Tomorrow with Harry Belafonte. She made her Broadway debut in 1954 in House of Flowers alongside Alvin Ailey, kickstarting both their careers. She had ballets created especially for her by figures such as Lester Horton, Geoffrey Holder, Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, John Butler and Agnes de Mille, according to the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation.

“I never planned, doors opened,” The New York Times reported de Lavallade told The Boston Globe in 2014. “Most people in my career stay with one company, but I never did that. I met extraordinary people that gave me something to look forward to. I, unbeknown to myself, became fearless about going into territory I knew nothing about.”

She was a principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera and guest-starred at the American Ballet Theatre.

“We honor and give thanks for her extraordinary life, boundless artistry, and the generations she shaped through her work, her wisdom, and her presence,” the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation wrote in a statement on social media. “As a mother, artist, and cultural icon, Carmen de Lavallade showed us what it means to live fully and truthfully in one’s art.”

Carmen de Lavallade was also a choreographer and a professor

The artist touched on many aspects of the performing arts. She choreographed for Dance Theatre of Harlem, PHILADANCO!, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Metropolitan Opera. She also spent a decade at the Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theater, where she was a performer and served as an adjunct professor to actors such as Meryl Streep.

She received several accolades recognizing her career, receiving the Dance Magazine Award in 1967, an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Juilliard in 2008 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2017.

“Her spirit will live on, forever woven into the fabric of our history,” the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation wrote.