Who Is Donald Mckayle?

Influenced primarily by cultural roots and incredibly opportunity, Dunham had the luxury of studying in the West Indies as well as anthropological study of other cultural style dances. The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham’s life and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. And, importantly for the development of modern dance, her fieldwork began her investigations into a vocabulary of movement that would form the core of the Katherine Dunham Technique. Though many of Dunham’s primary influences lies within her multicultural experiences, Mark Turbyfill also seemed to play a large role in her future dance career, giving her private lessons despite his doubt in the opening of her student company (Kaiso! 187). Katherine Dunham has been list as an influence to “everyone from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse and Twyla Tharp. American dance, including ballet, modern dance, Hollywood and Broadway, would not be the same without her” (Aschenbrenner 226).

When I was four years old I was introduced to a tall, petite, beautiful ballerina who spun around the room with elegance, and effortlessly captured the crowd with her stunning abilities. As a little girl, I sparkled with admiration and was inspired to be all she was, it was from that point on, that I ventured into an unknown world of art, strength and expression. Now being eighteen years old with about fourteen years of experience in the dance world, I have learned and developed the norms, values and practices of the culture, and the conflicting theory within it.

Alvin Ailey was an accomplished dancer and choreographer whose African-American heritage influenced his works in the 20th century. His successful dance career has gained international recognition and acclaim thus rendering a significant legacy. Ailey’s background as a dancer and choreographer had many strong influences from social, cultural, economic and political aspects during his early life. His African-American heritage has greatly influenced his works. Alvin was the founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (1958-), galvanized and stabilized an African American presence in theatrical dance. An outstanding performer, choreographer, company director, and mentor to scores of dance artists, Ailey oversaw the growth of his small, pick-up group of seven dancers into a large, carefully managed, internationally-renowned enterprise including several ensembles of dancers and a thriving school in New York City housed in the largest building devoted to dance in the United States. Along the way, Ailey changed the landscape of modern dance by developing new audiences for its performance through a consistent combination of exceptional artistry and wellcoordinated community outreach programs. In all, Ailey invigorated the art of dance with his distinctive creative imagination, his “blood memories” of cultural formations he witnessed as a child-- including the jook joint and the black church --and the strong survivalist ethic he learned as an African American man born in the

Alvin Ailey was a famous choreographer/dancer also founder of his own dance company (AAADT). Inspired by many, (including Katherine Dunham and Horton) he began dancing at the age of 15 where he found his love for dancing. Ballet, jazz and Broadway were the three main dance styles Ailey loved. These styles can also be recognised in nearly all of his choreographies. As choreographic styles identify the constituent features, when it comes to Ailey’s work we can clearly recognise them, through the movement used.

Secondly, Martha’s another strength was revolutionary choreographing skills. Martha Graham marked her peak in the 1930s when she was creating a unique American style of dance. She wanted to “explore some of the forces that have shaped American culture, expressing through dance what is was like to be an American and what America meant to her” (75). Her first piece, Frontier, was a huge success, and she lasted choreographing to the death. Afterwards, Martha created nearly fifty new dances during the 1930s. In addition, Erick Hawkins, the introduction of male dancers, joined Martha’s company in 1938, and gave a huge impact on both Martha’s dance style and personal life. Before Erick appeared in Martha’s life, there was a limitation on her work. However, Martha was able to “explore love, jealousy, ad sexual passion in her dances” (85) such as Every Soul Is a Circus, Letter to the World, and Punch and the Judy. Overall, Martha’s choreographing skills had created a revolution in 1930s.

“John Butler, Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Lucas Hoving, Pearl Lang, Murray Louis, Alwin Nikolais, Glen Tetley, Paul Taylor, and others charged boldly into dance's uncharted territory.” The color barrier was still a major issue, forcing many talented artists to travel abroad where they could freely exercise their talent. Alvin Ailey was becoming very successful and making his mark in every way possible, but it was time for a change, because people were getting tired of the same old thing. There was so much unrest in the world, and it was time for many African American choreographers to make a decision on how they wanted to respond to

Alvin Ailey’s Revelations quickly became a defining dance document of African American culture for all of its audiences. “For Ailey, Revelations realized the largely untapped potential of black dancers to inform concert dance with the profound cultural heritage of African American experience” (DeFrantz, 25).

Geographic conditions in the South allowed for plantations. The sunny climate and fertile soil allowed southerners to grow agricultural crops. Rice and other crops that was hard to cultivate demanded cheap labor. Gradually, Africans proved to not only be resistant to disease such as malaria, but knew how to farm better. As a result, a large amount of African slaves were purchased and brought to the southern plantations. Overtime, their customs and culture would spread in the south.

4. Kealiinohomoku. “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance” Pg 533

This year’s edition of The George Washington University’s “Danceworks” directed by Anthony Gongora was a modern variety act that combined components of dance and theatre throughout several individual performances. Among these individual performance, there were acts that were narrated while others told a story just through dance; there were acts that related to particular circumstance of GW students such as “9:35, 11:10, 12:45, 2:20, 4:10”, others that narrated the life stories of a particular character such as “Belinha,” and others that looked into the deeper meaning of human existence such as “Exuviate.” Even though the individual performances generated some interest among the members of the audience, there was chronological sequence among

Sally Banes is an American writer and dance historian and critic. She is also a professor of theater history and dance studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Banes has written multiple books and contributed to many documentaries and films. The book Moving History / Dancing Cultures, which Banes contributed to, includes the article “Choreographic Methods of the Judson Dance Theater”. This book was published in 2001.

Ohad Naharin, an Israeli dancer, choreographer, and director, was raised in an artistic home, with a psychologist who specialized in psychodrama as a father, and a mother who was a Feldenkrais instructor, a dancer, and a choreographer. Considered one of the world’s most outstanding contemporary choreographers, Naharin focused mainly on music, and painting, until the age of 22. At 22, Naharin started dancing at the Batsheva Dance Company, during which he was approached and invited by Martha Graham to come to America, where he would go on to study at Juilliard and the School of American Ballet.

Trisha Brown is considered to be one of the most pivotal choreographers of the 1960’s as her work and practice shifted away from historically considered “appropriate” movement for choreography. This ideology references the modern era of choreographers, moving away from the aesthetics of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham who worked with codified techniques, virtuosity and expressionism, whereas Brown saw dance as being of greater importance to the physical and mental process of the performer. Born in Aberdeen, Washington and studying dance at Mills College in

Travis Wall a native of Virginia Beach has been shaking and moving since being placed in a walker. Travis a son of a choreographer would take him to join classes at her dance studio and as he watched his mom danced he would emulate the moves with such accuracy. At the tender toddler age of three Travis was already dancing at full force and competing in conventions. At that time Travis knew his life would consist of dance. Fast forward about two decades you known have a well-known choreographer that made his claim to fame by being on a hit TV show “So You Think You Can Dance. With the hit TV show Travis was able to express visual music through his choreography having him nominated for an Emmy award. Travis choreographer skills has earned

Martha Graham wasn’t just an ordinary dancer, but an extraordinary choreographer and artist. You would expect an artist to just draw with pen and paper, but Martha wasn’t a regular artist she was different. She didn’t go by the rules of classical ballet, but created her own movements that showed internal feeling through movement. In addition to Martha’s creativity, she was also a critical modern dance figure in history and created a modern dance movement.