{"id":10264,"date":"2021-02-26T15:02:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T15:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=10264"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:25","slug":"cubie-burke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2021\/02\/26\/cubie-burke\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubie Burke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cubie Burke<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dance Theatre of Harlem<\/strong>
\nAtlanta Ballet<\/strong>
\nAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Cubie Edwin Burke, born November 8, 1964, was raised in Inglewood, New Jersey and began performing with his family\u2019s music group \u201cThe Five Stairsteps and Cubie<\/a>\u201d as early as sixteen months old. The group, in which Cubie played the drums and danced, recorded and released hits from 1968 to 1969.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Burke focused his artistic talents on dance and joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem at age 17. Burke appeared in DTH\u2019s premiere of Jerome Robbins\u2019 Fancy Free<\/em> (1985). After working with the company for six years, he later joined Atlanta Ballet, where he was the company’s only African American leading man at the time and was in the original cast of Toni Pimble\u2019s Common Ground <\/em>(1992). Burke was a member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and performed at both the Barcelona and Los Angeles Olympics closing ceremonies. In addition to dancing with Las Vegas theatrical shows and with Prince, he appeared in Clairol commercials. His choreography work includes the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards.<\/div>\n
Burke appeared as an actor in the ninth season of Unsolved Mysteries<\/em> in addition to beginning a production company in 1997.<\/div>\n
Burke also composed music and recognized Clyde Otis and Stevie Wonder as his mentors. He recorded a single \u201cDown for Double\u201d in 1982, but never finished an album or recorded many of the songs he had written.<\/div>\n
It is believed that Burke received a brain injury that resulted in his death at age 49, on May 14, 2014 in Smyrna, Georgia.<\/div>\n
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Cubie Burke, Tyrone Brooks<\/a>, Donald Williams<\/a>, and Theara Ward<\/a> in Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free<\/em>. Photo by Linda Rich via the Dance Theatre of Harlem archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cubie with his five older siblings, The Five Stairsteps and Cubie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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