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My Dance Linage
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Ruth St. Denis & Ted Shawn
The Denishawn School of Dance was founded. Many great dancerscame from this school. This school is now the current place for Jacob's Pillow -
Josephine Baker
Baker started dancing for The Dixie Steppers performing various comical skits. Later with her jaw-dropping act with the banana skirt she changed to role of a black women from being less than human, to show that black women can have a higher status in society. -
Swing dance was popular
The Charleston dance was derived from contemporary jazz dance -
The Shuffle Along: Broadway
This was the first all black musical on Broadway. -
Florence Mills
She stared in the musical The Shuffle Along and help gain the popularity of tap dance. -
Martha Graham
She began her career at Denishawn in 1916. Martha Graham started to teach and created a codified dance technique that became the first significant alternative to classical ballet. Her movement was angular, forceful, with many contraction and release centered in the dancer's pelvis. -
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
The Master of the Juba. Bojangles is known as the father of tap dance. -
Asadata Dafora
He was the dance pioneer bringing authentic West African culture to the United States. -
Fayard Nicholas & Harold Nicholas
Better known as the "Nicholas Brothers", they both had an unique career as tap and flash dancers. -
Katherine Dunham
An African American anthropologist and choreographer who would travel to the Caribbean to learn about the roots of that country. Dunham big breakthrough was when she opened up at the Windsor Theater in a program called "Tropics' and le 'Jazz Hot'. -
The Jitterbug become a popular dance
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Jose Limon
Limon used the complexities of human life as experience through the body. Using movements like reaching, bending, pulling, and grasping to communicate emotion. His technique emphasizes on the rhythms of falling and recovery. -
Talley Beatty
Studied with Katherine Dunham and trained under Martha Graham. His style is a mixed between Jazz and Ballet. Beaty also went on to do solo work and choreograph his own work based on social issues, experiences, and everyday life of an African American. -
Pearl Primus
Was the first black modern dancer. Strange Fruit was her first performance which talked about a black man being lynched by a white racist. -
Janet Collins
Was known as being the black female ballet dancer who became prominent in the American classical ballet, giving hope for a more equal society. -
Carmen de Lavallade
Became a member of Lester Horton Dance Theater where she danced as a main dancer uptick she left and danced for Alvin Ailey in 1954 and started her career in dancing and choreographing. in 2004 de Lavallade received the Black History Month Lifetime Achievement Award and the Rosie Award. -
Donald McKayle
Best known for creating socially conscious concert works during the 1950's and 60's. I focused on expressing the human condition and the black experience. -
Raven Wilkinson
She was the first African American women to dance for a major classical ballet company (Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo) -
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey Dance Company was formed at this time. He used the blues, spirituals and gospel. -
Arthur Duncan
He was the first African American to perform on a variety television program. -
Honi Coles & Charles "Cholly Atkins
Advanced the idea and promoted the art of rhythm tap dancing. They toured with bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Cab Callloway. -
Arthur Mitchell
Mitchell changed the myth that black dancers can not do ballet. Mitchell had a great belief in the power of education so he found The Dance Theatre of Harlem. -
Virginia Johnson
She was the founding members of Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969. At the age of 28 she retired for the company and became a communication major at Fordham University. Later she was hired as the inaugural editor-in-chief of Pointe Magazine in 2000. She left in 2009 to become the artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem. -
Gregory Hines
Tap Choreographer and Dancer changing how rhythm tap are seen as. -
Debbie Allen
Allen is an actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, and television producer. Allen is most known for her musical drama Fame -
Willi Ninja
Voguer, Willi Ninja, is The Godfather of Vogue dance. He created the House of Ninja to help other voguers have a safe place to vogue and be apart of a community and family. -
Bill T. Jones
Cofounded Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company. -
Savion Glover
One of the best rhythm tappers -
Desmond Richardson
He was first recognized as a student at his performing arts high school. Then he received a merit scholarship for Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. in 1987 he joined Alvin Ailey where he became the principal dancer for 7 years. He then let and traveled Europe. In 1994 he co-founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet with Dwight Rhoden. -
Robert Battle
Graduated from Juilliard School where he received his BFA in 1994. HE then joined Parson's Dance Company and then founded his own company called Battleworks Dance Company. In 2005 he was named one of the <asters of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. -
Camille A. Brown
The founder and Artistic director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers. She has choreographed commissioned pieces for many notable dance companies. -
Kyle Abraham
Received his BFA as SUNY Purchase and his MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. In 2006 he started his company A.I.M (Abraham. In. Motion). In 2007 he joined David Dorfman Dance. He has also worked with The Kevin Wynn Collective, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Dance Alloy, and Attack Theatre. -
Michaela DePrince
She danced for Dance Theatre of Harlem as the youngest dancer in the history of the company and currently dances as a soloist for the Dutch National Ballet. Since 2016 DePrince is the goodwill ambassador with the Dutch organization War Child. -
Misty Copeland
Copland became the first African American women to be promoted to principal dance in the American Ballet Theatre 75 year History. -
Christina Collins
Started dancing at 9 with just hip hop, Collins found her love for dance and started doing all styles. By the time she was 18 she has taken class from hula dance to jazz dance. In 2020 Christina plans on graduating for VCU fro a BFA in Dance and Choreography. Collins future plans is to join a dance company and later in life, open her own dance school for with a professional dance company.