Gregory Jackson

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Mitchell McCarthy (left) and Gregory Jackson in Dougla with DTH, photo via Burlington Free Press, 1986.

Gregory Jackson grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and trained at the LaNita Rocknettes School of Dance. As a member of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jackson was an original principal dancer in Arthur Mitchell’s John Henry (1988), and his other repertoire included Mitchell’s Fête Noire and Holberg Suite, George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Giselle, and Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla.

The Washington Post praised Jackson’s “classical stretch and clean line” in a 1989 review of Giselle, and The New York Times called him one of “two very fine young classicists” in Arthur Mitchell’s Holberg Suite and ”youthfully athletic” in The Four Temperaments in 1993.

He was the recipient of a Princess Grace Award in 1986.

Gregory Jackson (left) and Dean Anderson in Troy Game, photo: Marbeth via The Dance Theatre of Harlem Archives.

Sources:

A Certain Style, The Burlington Free Press
Harlem’s Fluid ‘Giselle’, The Washington Post
Gregory Jackson, Princess Grace Foundation—USA
Reviews/Dance; Harlem Troupe in a Multifaceted Retrospective, The New York Times
Dance in Review, The New York Times
Dance Theatre of Harlem, The New York Public Library
Young dancers get masterclass on believing in yourself, working towards goals, Leo Weekly
Harlem’s roots are Russian, The Sacramento Bee

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