McKayle, Donald, 1930-

Donald McKayle is a renowned dancer, choreographer, and dance instructor.

He was born in New York City on July 6, 1930. He began his career in New York City studying dance and working as a professional dancer. In 1951 he founded Donald McKayle and Company, creating such landmark works as Games, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder, and District Storyville between 1951 and 1962. In 1969 he left New York and moved to California, where he was a choreograper for a number of films and television shows. He has taught master classes for professional companies in Moscow, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, and Cologne, and has served on the faculty of numerous schools, including the American Dance Festival, Bennington College and the Juilliard School. Since 1989 he has served as artistic director of the Department of Dance at the University of California, Irvine.

From the description of Donald McKayle papers, 1930-1998. (University of California, Irvine). WorldCat record id: 46318343

Biography

A world-renowned choreographer, Donald McKayle began his career in New York City, initially studying dance with the New Dance Group and dancing professionally for noted choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Sophie Maslow, and Anna Sokolow. In the 1950's he founded and directed Donald McKayle and Company, creating such landmark works as Games, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder, and District Storyville between 1951 and 1962. Although originally created for McKayle's own company, these works are now found in the repertories of major modern dance companies such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. McKayle's career has taken him to and beyond Broadway, where he choreographed Golden Boy, directed and choreographed Raisin, and conceived and choreographed Sophisticated Ladies . He has worked in film and television as well, choreographing dance sequences in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Minstrel Man and directing the first episodes of the television series Good Times .

Donald McKayle was born in New York City on July 6, 1930. A first-generation American and the son of Jamaican parents, he grew up in Harlem. The McKayles, a tightly knit, loving family, were part of the New York West Indian community which offered social interaction and cultural awareness to a young boy. McKayle first danced in public at a West Indian social activity.

He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and graduated in 1947. While in high school, McKayle showed a passion for both folk music and American and African-American history. He belonged to a high school chapter of the Frederick Douglass Society and a youth group called Club L'Ouverture which held folk dances and "sings," and on weekends he went to hootenannies and danced Latin at the Grand Plaza. His choreography later drew from these early experiences and interests.

McKayle's early years in New York City and his interests in the performing arts and folk music were a prelude to his dance career, which began in his senior year in high school when he won a scholarship to New York's New Dance Group in 1947. Pearl Primus, a Trinidad-born dancer, choreographer and scholar of African studies, drew McKayle into a life in dance. Her powerful performances of pieces such as African Ceremonial and Hard Time Blues were watershed moments for the young McKayle. Primus, regarded by many as the "Mother of African-American Dance," was his first exposure to a dancer who "wedded African rhythms and themes to modern training."

After winning a scholarship to the New Dance Group, McKayle surrendered his life to dance. The Group was a large, democratic artists' organization with first-generation disciples of modern dance pioneers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm and Charles Weidman. He had the opportunity to study under established choreographers, including Sophie Maslow, Pearl Primus and Jean Erdman.

McKayle danced in several of Maslow's masterworks, including Folksay, The Village I Knew and Champion . The choreography and mentoring of Sophie Maslow and Pearl Primus had an enormous influence on McKayle's creative life. He adopted and adapted a similar approach to his own artistic work, whereby he translated both folk and African-American themes in his choreography.

In McKayle's second year of formal dance training, the New Dance Group embarked on a concert season which thrust him into performance. He danced in Sophie Maslow's Folksay and Champion and Jean Erdman's Four Four Time . The New York City dance world in the 1950's was fluid and McKayle moved easily within it, dancing with and for such masters as Anna Sokolow and Merce Cunningham. He won a scholarship to study at Martha Graham's School of Contemporary Dance and had the opportunity to work personally with this pioneering choreographer. Graham created a solo for him in her piece Ardent Song . He joined and traveled with the Martha Graham Company on a State Department-sponsored tour of East Asia in 1955 and 1956, a tour comprised of both performances and lecture demonstrations by Graham. It was his first experience with world travel and foreign cultures and it both impressed him and influenced his creative work.

While developing a busy professional dance career, McKayle began to choreograph first for himself and later for groups. In 1951 he founded Donald McKayle and Company. In 1969 he left New York and moved to California. He continued to perform, teach and create on the West Coast as artistic director of the Los Angeles Inner City Repertory Dance Company in the early 1970's. McKayle has not directed his own company since 1973.

In 1963 McKayle won the Capezio award, his first major award for choreography, and he has continued to receive recognition for his art ever since that time. Other prestigious honors include the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award in 1992. In 1997 McKayle became the first creative artist to receive the UC Irvine Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Research.

As Donald McKayle gained a solid reputation in the concert dance world as a choreographer, influential people in other theatrical realms took notice. The acclaim of his "jazz ballet" in pieces such as District Storyville drew the attention of Broadway producer Hillard Elkins, who asked McKayle to choreograph the dance sequences in his production of Golden Boy, starring Sammy Davis, Jr. Elkins was successful in enticing McKayle to choreography for Broadway, where Golden Boy premiered in 1964. The production was a success and McKayle earned a Tony nomination for his choreography, thus beginning another aspect of his career. In earlier years McKayle had danced on Broadway in Bless You All, House of Flowers, and West Side Story, and he had directed and choreographed musical theatre off Broadway.

He later directed and choreographed a musical version of the hit play Raisin in the Sun, entitled simply Raisin . The production, starring newcomer Debbie Allen, became a success in its own right and won the Tony for best musical in 1974. McKayle has earned five Tony nominations for his work on Broadway.

Donald McKayle conceived the Tony-nominated Broadway hit Sophisticated Ladies based on the life and writings of Duke Ellington. The show was originally titled "Duke," but was later given the "sexier" title Sophisticated Ladies before the show opened. Sophisticated Ladies premiered on Broadway in 1981 and starred Gregory Hines and Judith Jamison, who later became the director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. McKayle's original concept and staging of musical numbers had undergone a plethora of changes, but the "choreo-musical" that he conceived in 1978 received numerous Tony nominations. He won the NAACP Image Award for writing and an Outer Critics Circle Award for choreography in 1981.

Sophisticated Ladies in 1981 was McKayle's last endeavor on Broadway. He has also directed and choreographed numerous regional theater productions before and since his stint on Broadway; other credits include Emperor Jones in 1986 and Evolution of the Blues from 1978 to 1979.

Hollywood has also enlisted McKayle's talents. He choreographed dance for films, including Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Great White Hope and The Jazz Singer, and for television films and shows including The Minstrel Man, Free to Be You and Me, The Strolling Twenties, and The Ed Sullivan Show .

Teaching remains a vital part of Donald McKayle's dance career. He has taught master classes for professional companies in Moscow, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv and Köln and has served on the faculty of numerous schools, including the American Dance Festival, Bennington College and the Juilliard School. He has served as artistic director of the UCI Department of Dance since 1989.

As an artist and professor, Donald McKayle continues to direct musical theater, teach dance and create new works for dance companies around the world, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and Limón Dance Company. He has also created works for the UCI Department of Dance.

Chronology

Note: A more extensive choreology of Donald McKayle's concert dance pieces follows this chronology.

Concert Dance Choreology

Note: The following choreology (a chronology of a choreographer's work) indicates the years of creation and premiere of concert dance pieces. It does not include McKayle's choreography in other genres such as theater and film. Unless otherwise noted, the pieces are ensemble dances.

From the guide to the Donald McKayle papers, 1930-2009, (Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries)