Talley Beatty

Talley Beatty was born on December 22, 1918, in Cedar Grove, Louisiana, a section of Shreveport, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He worked as a dancer, choreographer, dance company director, and held a doctoral degree. His Broadway career spanned from 1940 to 1948, and he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography in 1977. He died on April 29, 1995.

Beatty began his dance training at age eleven under Katherine Dunham, whose technique drew heavily from her research into African and Caribbean dance traditions in the West Indies. He performed as part of Dunham's company, including at the 1931 First Negro Dance Recital in America, organized by Edna Guy. In the 1940s he also trained under Martha Graham. He departed the Dunham troupe in 1946 to pursue further study in New York City, where he took ballet lessons. Due to racism, he was restricted to attending those classes in early morning or late night hours in a dressing room while other classes were held in an adjacent studio.

His Broadway credits include Cabin in the Sky, Show Boat, Blue Holiday, Interplay, and Inside U.S.A. He performed in Show Boat in 1946 alongside Pearl Primus, Joe Nash, and Alma Sutton, and appeared in Inside U.S.A. in 1948, a revue staged by Helen Tamiris. His film work included appearances in Carnival of Rhythm (1940), Stormy Weather (1943), and Maya Deren's experimental short A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945), in which Deren cut together footage of Beatty dancing across multiple locations, with the camera functioning as his partner. In 1947 he performed Blackface with Ballet Society, an early company associated with George Balanchine.

Beatty's dance style was widely described by dancers and critics as a fusion of jazz and ballet. He characterized it himself as a combination of Graham connective steps, Dunham technique, and ballet. His choreography emphasized movement that extended outward from the extremities, including leg extensions and back arches, and was noted for its speed and physical demands. Dancers who worked with his material have stated that a strong foundation in at least four disciplines, including ballet and modern dance, was required to perform his works. Critics were divided: John Martin faulted Beatty's incorporation of ballet, while Margaret Lloyd praised his leaps in The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance, describing them as phenomenal.

Beatty's company made its debut at Jacob's Pillow in 1948, premiering his work Southern Landscape, and returned to perform there in 1952 and 1960. He returned to the Pillow in 1992 to oversee Philadanco's revival of Southern Landscape, three years before his death.

As a choreographer, Beatty created works for companies including Alvin Ailey, Batsheva, and Boston Ballet, as well as for choreographers Ruth Page, Lew Christiansen, George Balanchine, and Syvilla Fort. He choreographed more than fifty ballets and worked in both the United States and Europe. Among his notable concert works are Road to Phoebe Snow (1959), set to music by Duke Ellington, Congo Tango Palace (1960), Caravanserai (1971), and The Stack Up (1983). His Broadway choreography credits include a revival of House of Flowers (1968), Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope (1970), and Your Arms Too Short to Box with God (1976), the last of which earned him his Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography in 1977. His career also encompassed work in nightclubs, on the concert stage, and in television, though he noted that his television opportunities diminished once the medium became commercially lucrative.