Donald McKayle papers, 1930-2016

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Summary

Creators:

McKayle, Donald (July 6, 1930-April 6, 2018)

Abstract:

Photographs, programs, production notes, music scores, audio and video recordings, costume designs, reviews, and other printed and graphic materials illustrate the eclectic career of world-renowned choreographer and University of California, Irvine (UCI) Professor of Dance Donald McKayle. Early materials pertain to his youth in Harlem and his performance career in New York City in concert dance, theater, and television. Much of the collection documents McKayle's career as the choreographer of over fifty concert dance pieces between 1948 and 1998 and as a director or choreographer for theatrical productions both off and on Broadway, including Raisin and Sophisticated Ladies. Another significant portion of the collection documents McKayle's tenure at UCI until his death in 2018. The materials illustrate the development of individual choreographic pieces, the evolution of McKayle as an artist, and his career as a dance educator.

Extent:

27.3 Linear Feet (19 document boxes, 13 record cartons, 1 half letter size document box, 1 shoe box, 6 flat boxes, and 3 oversized folders) and 17.3 unprocessed linear feet

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

Donald McKayle Papers. MS-P 23. Special Collections and Archives, The UCI Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

Photographs, programs, production notes, music scores, audio and video recordings, costume designs, reviews, and other printed and graphic materials illustrate the eclectic career of world-renowned choreographer and University of California, Irvine Professor of Dance Donald McKayle. Early materials pertain to his youth in Harlem and his performance career in New York City in concert dance theater and television. The bulk of the collection documents McKayle's career as the choreographer of over fifty concert dance pieces between 1948 and 1998 and as a director or choreographer for theatrical productions both off and on Broadway, including Raisin and Sophisticated Ladies. The materials illustrate the development of individual choreographic pieces, the evolution of McKayle as an artist and his career as a dance educator.

Photographs and printed items, including programs, reviews, and clippings, constitute the vast majority of the McKayle Papers. In general, these materials pertain to Donald McKayle's concert dance choreography and his work in theater. Night club acts, television specials and films on which he worked are also represented in the collection. Other significant materials include drafts of his autobiography, Transcending Boundaries; his curriculum vitae; a complete choreology; videotapes of performances and interviews; and musical items such as recordings, scores, and lyrics. Some production notes and notebooks and research materials are in the collection; these are more present for works created while at UCI, but these notes do not provide comprehensive documentation of McKayle's production career.

The collection is organized in eleven series based on format and genre of the materials. The collection begins with biographical items that illustrate McKayle's early life and career in dance, as well as published items and an autobiography that elaborate on his entire career. Programs, scripts, photographs, videos, scores and lyrics document his careers in choreography and dance performance. Graphic materials, including costume designs and posters, illustrate only a few theatrical productions and dance pieces. Critical reviews, clippings and various publicity materials provide nearly comprehensive documentation of McKayle's life in dance. The remainder of the collection is comprised of a smattering of correspondence from colleagues and students and items pertaining to his life as a UCI professor of dance and a professional artist active on national advisory boards and various committees.

Within each series, materials are arranged by the genres of performing arts McKayle worked in, including concert dance, film, nightclub acts, television, theatre and recordings. Under those headings, the items are generally arranged in alphabetical order by the title of the piece. Dates, when known, are provided after the title of the piece. Most choreographic works have been and continue to be performed numerous times, thus the creation date of a piece does not necessarily correspond to the date of a particular item about the piece. For example, there are numerous reviews of McKayle' definitive work Games, spanning from 1960 to 1995. Frequently, a single performance encompassed several of McKayle works. These multiple bills and retrospectives follow the single dance performances and are arranged either by the title of the first piece or by the dance company giving the retrospective.

Biographical / historical:

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 took him to and beyond Broadway, where he choreographed Golden Boy, directed and choreographed Raisin, and conceived and choreographed Sophisticated Ladies. He 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 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 choreograph 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 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 also directed and choreographed numerous regional theater productions before and after his stint on Broadway; other credits include Emperor Jones in 1986 and Evolution of the Blues from 1978 to 1979.

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

While an artist and professor, Donald McKayle directed musical theater, taught dance and created new works for dance companies around the world including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and Limón Dance Company. He continued to create works for the UCI Department of Dance until his death in 2018.

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

Date	Event
1930	Born on July 6th in New York City.
1947	Graduated from De Witt Clinton High School. Received work scholarship to the New Dance Group.
1947-1949	Attended City College of New York.
1948	Professional debut with the New Dance Group. Saturday's Child
1948-1952	Performed with the Mary Anthony Dance Company.
1948-1953	Performed with the Jean Erdman Company.
1948-1955	Performed with Dudley, Maslow and the New Dance Group.
1950	Performed with Contemporary Dance Company. Bless You All.
1951	Guest artist at Daniel Nagrin Dance Company. Games
1951-1969	Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer for Donald McKayle and Company.
1952	Her Name Was Harriet. Fred Waring Show
1952-1954	Performed with the New York City Opera Ballet.
1952-1955	Performed with Anna Sokolow Dance Company.
1954	American Folk Suite. House of Flowers. Married Esta Beck.
1955-1956	Joined Martha Graham Company for the American National Theatre Academy tour of the Near and Far East, sponsored by the State Department of the United States. Daughter Gabrielle born.
1957	West Side Story and Copper and Brass
1958	Daughter Liane born.
1959	Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder.
1960	The Dance Has Many Faces Stepson Guy born.
1962	District Storyville.
1963	Won the Capezio Dance Award.
1964	Daughters of the Garden. Golden Boy
1965	The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief Workout. Married Lea Vivante.
1966	A Time for Singing for Broadway. The Strollin' Twenties and The Ed Sullivan Show
1967	The Ed Sullivan Show and The Bill Cosby Special Black New World
1968	The Motown Special
1969	The Bill Cosby Special Dick Van Dyke Special Moved to California. The Great White Hope. Hollywood Palace
1970	Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
1970-1973	Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of Inner City Repertory Dance Company.
1972	Charlie and the Angel.
1974	Nominated for Tony Awards for Best Choreography and Best Direction. Good Times Raisin
1975	Minstrel Man Dr. Jazz Nominated for Tony Award for Best Choreography.
1976	Blood Memories.
1977	Choreographed the 49th Annual Academy Awards for television (ABC).
1978	The Last Minstrel Show
1978-1980	Sophisticated Ladies
1981	Sophisticated Ladies. N'Orleans, Sophisticated Ladies.
1984	Dancing in the Streets Emperor Jones
1986	Emperor Jones.
1989	"Present Vision/Past Voice: A Salute to Donald McKayle," a retrospective by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in Columbia, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois.
1989	Became a Professor of Dance at the University of California, Irvine.
1990	Stardust
1991	"All McKayle Program," a retrospective by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, staged at City Center Theatre in New York City.
1992	House of Tears Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. Sombra Y Sol (Images of Frieda Kahlo)
1994	Living Legends Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement from the National Black Arts Festival. Blood Memories. Lehman Award "for the advancement of dance in our society." American Dance Guild Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement.
1995	Shimmy "Trailblazers: Dancers of Change," a retrospective by the Los Angeles Dance Theatre, staged at Ford Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
1995	Became Artistic Mentor and Resident Choreographer of the José Limón Dance Company.
1997	Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Research from the University of California. Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching at the American Dance Festival. City and County of Denver proclaim "Masterworks: A Tribute to Donald McKayle Days."
1998	"Infinite Journey: Donald McKayle's Life in Dance," an exhibit of materials from McKayle's archive, mounted in the Muriel Reynolds Gallery at the UCI Libraries.
2004	Heritage Award for contributions to dance education from the National Dance Association
2016	Bessie Award for Outstanding Revival presented to Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder performed by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
2018	Death on April 6, 2018 in Orange County, California

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.

Date	Event
1948	Saturday's Child,
1950	Songs of the Forest, Creole Afternoon,
1951	Games
1952	Nocturne Her Name Was Harriet
1953	They Called Her Moses Four Excursions
1954	The Street Prelude To Action American Folk Suite
1957	Muse In The Mews
1958	Out Of The Chrysalis
1959	Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder
1960	One, Two, Three Follow Me
1961	Legendary Landscape
1962	District Storyville
1963	Blood of The Lamb Arena
1964	Cross-town Daughters of the Garden
1965	Incantation Wilderness Workout
1966	Burst of Fists
1967	Black New World
1972	Migrations Songs of the Disinherited
1973	Sojourn
1974	Barrio
1976	Album Leaves Blood Memories Recuerdos,
1977	Argot Mountain of Spices
1982	Ricochet
1983	Solaris
1984	Collage Avatar Vévé (Vever)
1985	Looking for Jerusalem
1986	Beneath the Baobab
1987	Twilight, solo for Gregg Lizenbery Apsaras
1990	Ring-a-levio Distant Drum
1991	Sombra Y Sol (Images of Frida Kahlo) Infinite Journey
1992	House of Tears
1993	Mysteries and Raptures Ring-a-levio
1994	Vigils Gumbo Ya-Ya Blood Memories
1995	When I Grow Up ...When I Was A Child
1996	Rainbow Etude
1997	Heartbeats Delicious Obsession Seven Deadly Sins In the Deep Dreaming of My Hands
1998	Supplication

Acquisition information:

Gifts of Donald McKayle or his estate in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2018, and 2022.

Processing information:

The collection was processed by Laura Clark Brown and Emma Kheradyar in 1998. The finding aid was prepared by Laura Clark Brown and James Ryan in 1998 and edited by William Landis in 1998; the finding aid was edited and updated by Audra Eagle Yun in 2012. Additional accruals were accessioned and the finding aid was updated by Christine Kim in 2017; Zoe Macleod in 2018, 2021, and 2022; and Scott Stone in 2022.

Indexed terms

Subjects:: African American dancers.
Dance -- Archives
Dance in motion pictures, television, etc. -- United States
Choreography -- United States -- History -- Sources
Modern dance -- United States -- History -- Sources
Choreographers.
Dance teachers.
Dancers.
Costume design drawings.
Dance cards
Photographic prints
Sound recordings.
Video recordings
Scores
Negatives (photographic)
Names:: University of California, Irvine -- Faculty -- Archives
McKayle, Donald (July 6, 1930-April 6, 2018) -- Archives

Access and use

Restrictions:: The collection is open for research except all audiovisual materials and the unprocessed negatives in box 25 are restricted; please contact UCI Special Collections and Archives for more information at spcoll@uci.edu.
Terms of access:: Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by The Donald McKayle Legacy (Lea Vivante and Dennis Nahat). For permissions to publish, please contact The Donald McKayle Legacy (http://www.donaldmckayle.com/).