Donald McKayle

Donald McKayle (July 6, 1930 – April 6, 2018) was a New York-born modern dancer, choreographer, director, teacher, and writer who performed on Broadway between 1950 and 1957 and went on to become the first Black man to both direct and choreograph major Broadway musicals. Raised in a racially mixed East Harlem neighborhood among African-American, Puerto Rican, and Jewish immigrant communities, McKayle was the second child of a middle-class family of Jamaican descent. His father worked at the Copacabana nightclub as a maintenance man before becoming a mechanic, and his mother worked as a medical assistant. His upbringing in an integrated neighborhood, combined with his parents' liberal and activist outlooks, shaped the social consciousness that would define his artistic work throughout his career.

McKayle's introduction to dance came as a teenager after witnessing a performance by Pearl Primus. Despite having no formal training at the time, he auditioned for and received a scholarship to the New Dance Group in 1947, where he studied modern, ballet, tap, Afro-Caribbean, Hindu, and Haitian dance forms. His instructors included Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, and Karol Shook, and his mentors included Sophie Maslow, Jane Dudley, William Bales, and his first teacher, Jean Erdman. Within a year of beginning formal study, McKayle was creating his own concert dance works. His high school English teacher Lewis Allen, also known as Abel Meeropol and author of the poem "Strange Fruit," influenced his political thinking, and McKayle joined the Frederick Douglass Society in high school to study African-American history.

At eighteen, McKayle premiered his solo work Saturday's Child (1948), choreographed to the poetry of Countee Cullen, which depicted poverty and homelessness. The piece's repeated performances brought him to the attention of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts, an organization that included figures such as Langston Hughes and Harry Belafonte and was dedicated to combating racial prejudice in the performing arts. His first major work, Games (1951), drew on childhood memories, combining street chants, play songs, and rhythms to examine how poverty and discrimination shape the lives of young people. The piece launched his concert dance career and is considered an American dance classic. Rainbow Round My Shoulder (1959), another widely acclaimed work, depicted the movement of prisoners on a chain gang to address themes of bondage, racial injustice, and the African-American aspiration for freedom and equality. In 2016, a revival of Rainbow Round My Shoulder performed by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and produced by Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at the David H. Koch Theater received the Bessie Award for Outstanding Revival.

As a young performer, McKayle appeared alongside some of the most significant choreographers of the twentieth century and took part in landmark Broadway productions. His verified Broadway performing credits include Bless You All, House of Flowers, and Copper and Brass, with his stage appearances spanning 1950 to 1957. He also appeared in West Side Story (1957), where he served for a time as the production's dance captain. McKayle formed his own company, Donald McKayle and Dancers, which he directed from 1951 to 1969, and later led the Inner City Repertory Dance Company from 1970 to 1974.

McKayle's transition into directing and choreographing Broadway productions marked a historic shift in American theater. Golden Boy (1964) was his first Broadway production as a choreographer, followed by I'm Solomon (1969), Raisin (1973), Dr. Jazz (1975), and Sophisticated Ladies (1981). Raisin earned him a Tony Award for Best Musical, and his work on Sophisticated Ladies earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography in 1981; he had received an earlier Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography in 1975. His work on Sophisticated Ladies encompassed the production's full concept, staging, and choreography.

McKayle's work extended into television and film. His choreography appeared on every major television network from 1951 to 1985, including on The Bill Cosby Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. His film credits include Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1970), The Great White Hope (1972), and The Minstrel Man (1976). A biographical documentary, Donald McKayle: Heartbeats of a Dancemaker, directed by Joy Chong-Stannard and narrated by Della Reese, featured appearances by Harry Belafonte and the José Limón Dance Company, among others.

In addition to his performing and creative work, McKayle had a substantial career as an educator. He served on the faculties of Connecticut College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bennington College before joining the University of California, Irvine, where he held the endowed Claire Trevor Professor of Dance chair and served as artistic director of UCI's dance troupe. He was the first recipient of UCI's Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Research. Among his other honors, McKayle received the Capezio Dance Award in 1963, the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in 1992, and the Heritage Award from the National Dance Association in 2004. Over the course of his career he choreographed more than seventy works for dance companies across the United States, Canada, Israel, Europe, and South America, and maintained ongoing relationships with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the Cleveland San Jose Ballet, and the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theatre. McKayle died on April 6, 2018.