Donald McKayle and DTH Jacob’s Pillow Premier 

McKayle’s efforts to include Black ballet dancers and create a space that celebrated Blackness through ballet served as an avenue of inspiration for Arthur Mitchell. Because of ballet’s lack of diversity and inclusion of Black dancers, Arthur Mitchell felt the need to create his own space that allowed for Black and Brown dancers to feel included and enjoy the art of dance in a space that celebrated their identities. He created his own predominantly Black and inclusive dance company along with the support of other Black dancers and Karel Shook now known as the Dance Theatre of Harlem. 

 

 

 

More about Donald McKayle 

Donald McKayle was an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance born on July 6, 1930 in Harlem and passed on April 6, 2018. His legacy continues to live on as he was the first Black man to choreograph and direct Broadway musicals. One of his most notable musicals was “Raisin,” based on the play, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry which describes the lives of a struggling Black family in Chicago. This musical was also awarded a Tony for “Best Musical.” 

McKayle’s dancing career was one of the greatest as he was also able to create his own dance company at 21, Donald McKayle and Company, with some of the greatest names in dance including Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell and Eliot Feld. The debut for Donald McKayle and Company premiered his first major work, Games, in 1951. This performance then went on to be showcased at Jacob’s Pillow in 1953. Donald McKayle and Company was composed of a young Arthur Mitchell, Joe Nash, Shawneequa Baker, Esta Beck, Eve Beck, Louanna Gardner, John Fealy, and Ed Lum. 

Throughout his career, he gained more recognition and notability as his work lies in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the Cleveland San Jose Ballet, and the 

Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theatre. He also served as head of the Inner City Repertory Dance Company from 1970 to 1974, and then contributed his talents to the Limon Dance Company since 1995. McKayle brilliantly choreographed over ninety performances for dance companies in the U.S., Canada, Israel, Europe and South America. As a dance teacher he has taught at Bennington College, the Juilliard School, the American Dance Festival, and in Europe and took on the position of dean at the School of Dance at the California Institute of the Arts, and as professor of dance and the artistic director for the University of California, Irvine Dance. 

McKayle’s efforts to include Black ballet dancers and create a space that celebrated Blackness through ballet served an avenue of inspiration for Arthur Mitchell as he later went on to create his own predominantly Black and inclusive dance company along with other Black dancers and the support from Karel Shook, Dance Theatre of Harlem. 

An excerpt from McKayle’s obituary in The New York Times reads: 

One day, on his way to church, Donald noticed a poster showing attractive black people in exotic clothes. It was an ad for Katherine Dunham and her company, the nation’s first self-supporting black modern-dance troupe. Donald promptly spent $4.50 for a balcony seat to see their show, “Haitian Roadside.”

He soon saw Martha Graham perform but wasn’t sure whether he liked it, he wrote in his memoir “Transcending Boundaries: My Dancing Life” (2002). But, he added, he could not get it out of his mind.

When he was 14 he was enchanted by the first musical he saw, “Finian’s Rainbow.” But it was a dance concert with Pearl Primus, another pioneer in introducing African and Caribbean dance to Americans, that sealed the deal. “I want to dance like her,” he announced to a friend that night. And from then on he considered himself a dancer.

Without any formal training, he received, in 1947, a scholarship to the New Dance Group, a company dedicated to promoting social change. Three years later he was on Broadway, part of the ensemble in the musical revue “Bless You All,” with Pearl Bailey as headliner. (He attended City College of New York but dropped out in his sophomore year.)

Sources:

Donald McKayle, The History Makers
Donald McKayle, choreographer of modern dance and Broadway stage, dies at 87, The Washington Post
Donald McKayle, 87, broadway and modern dance choreographer dies, New York Times
Pioneeting black choreographer, director Donald McKayle dies, Business Insider
Dance of the African diaspora, Donald McKayle, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive

 

Elizette Santana-Caraballo