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America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: the First 100

Pearl Primus in Africa (c.1960). (Photograph from the Pearl Primus Papers; courtesy of the American Dance Festival Archives.)

A dancer, choreographer, and inspired proselytizer for African dance, Pearl Primus (1919-1994) was born in Trinidad. She came to New York as a child, received an excellent education, but found her ambition to be a doctor thwarted by racism. She received a scholarship from the New Dance Group and in 1943 made her debut at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA. She worked with Asadata Dafora, began a study of African and African-American material, and developed a repertory of dances emphasizing the rich variety of African diasporic traditions. In 1948, with a Julius Rosenwald Fund grant, she spent over a year in Africa, collecting material and documenting dances that in some cases were fading into history. Returning to New York, she opened the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance. In 1961 she became the director of the African Performing Arts Center in Monrovia, Liberia, the first organization of its kind on the African continent. A buoyant and charismatic performer, Primus lectured widely and taught courses in anthropology and ethnic dance on many campuses. "I dance not to entertain," she once said, "but to help people to better understand each other."

Jerome Robbins in rehearsal for the filming of West Side Story (1960). (Photograph by United Artists; from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

The greatest of American-born ballet choreographers and the best choreographer in Broadway's golden years, Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) was born in New York City. His initial training, with Senia Gluck-Sandor and Felicia Sorel at the Dance Center, was in modern dance; only later did he begin studying ballet with Ella Daganova. He danced in a number of musicals, then in 1940 joined Ballet Theatre. Four years later he choreographed Fancy Free, his first ballet and the inspiration for his first Broadway choreographic assignment, On the Town. For the next twenty years Robbins shuttled between ballet and musical theater. In 1949 he joined the New York City Ballet, a forty-year association that led to the creation of dozens of outstanding works, from Afternoon of a Faun (1953) to Dances at a Gathering (1969) and Glass Pieces (1994). He choreographed some of Broadway's finest musicals, including The King and I (1951), West Side Story (1957), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). In 1958 he formed a small company, Ballets: USA, which toured extensively in Europe. Robbins was a generous supporter of the New York Public Library's Dance Collection. www.jeromerobbins.org

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. (Photograph from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

Hailed as the Father of tapology, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878-1949) began performing on street corners as a youngster and, at age eleven, joined The South Before the War, a touring production. Robinson gained his nickname because of his reputation as a "jangler" and is immortalized in the song "Mr. Bojangles." He arrived in New York in 1898 and, within ten years, was a vaudeville soloist and star, billed as Dark Cloud of Joy. His Stair Dance was perfected in the early 1920s, but Robinson's number became classic as performed with Shirley Temple in The Little Colonel (1935), one of fourteen movies. The first of six Broadway shows was Blackbirds of 1928. Robinson reached an entirely new audience with Michael Todd's Swing Mikado, when the production moved from the Great White Way to New York's 1939 World's Fair. The first black soloist to star on white vaudeville circuits, he was a headliner for forty years, known for strict tempos and smooth shifts executed on his toes. Robinson coined the word "copasetic," to signify "all is fine." Formed in 1949, the black dance fraternity became the Copasetics in his honor.

Ruth St. Denis in Legend of the Peacock (1914). (Photograph from the archives of Jacob's Pillow, Becket, Massachusetts.)

Raised in a Bohemian environment, Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) was encouraged to perform as a youngster. She studied ballroom and skirt dancing at the Maud Davenport school in Somerville, New Jersey, and was drilled in Delsarte poses by her mother. Her first professional job was as a variety act in 1894 at Worth's Family Theatre and Museum in New York. Important early influences were her work with the eminent director David Belasco, eastern spiritualism and imagery, along with European travel. By 1906 with Radha, St. Denis had the essence of her distinctive dance style, which combined spiral form with equal parts voluptuousness, mysticism, and erotica. She built a stunning career as a soloist and, in 1914, acquired a professional and personal partner in Ted Shawn. A year later the two opened Denishawn which, as a school and company, nurtured leaders of the next generation of modern dancers: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. As a choreographer, St. Denis created some beautiful visualization group works, but her performance in such solos as The Incense, The Nautch, The Cobras, The Yogi, Liebestraum, and, with Shawn, in Tillers of the Soil are most memorable. Her autobiography, An Unfinished Life, was published in 1939.

The San Francisco Ballet in Helgi Tomasson's Le Quattro Stagioni (1993). (Photograph from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

The Savoy Ballroom. (Photograph © Bettmann/Corbis; used by permission.)

The Savoy Ballroom, known as "Home of Happy Feet," opened on March 12, 1926, spanning the entire block on Harlem's Lenox Avenue between 140 and 141 Streets. Owned by Moe Gale and managed by Charles Buchanan, the two-storied pink ballroom had a spectacular marble staircase, mirrored walls, two bandstands, and a 10,000-square-foot wooden floor that had to be replaced every three years, due to excessive wear. Known as "The Track," the spring loaded floor could accommodate 4,000, who flocked to dance contests on Wednesday evenings and to witness special events such as Battle of the Bands, with such competitors as Benny Goodman and Chick Webb. With a nominal cover charge, the Savoy Ballroom was open to the public—both black and white patrons—until 3:00 a.m. for five nights weekly and could be booked on the other two evenings for private parties. Cutting-edge dances and vigorous performers were the attraction. The Lindy Hop, named for Charles Lindbergh's aerial "hop" across the Atlantic in 1927, originated at the Savoy. The Charleston, Savoy-Style Lindy, mambo, Big Apple, Suzy Q, Truckin', and jitterbug were also perfected by Savoy champions until 1958, when the legendary ballroom closed.

A 1937 photograph of Bessie Schönberg. (Photograph from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

One of the foremost dance educators and teachers of choreography in the United States, Bessie Schönberg (1906-1997) was born in Hanover, Germany. She studied eurhythmics in Germany, but it was only after she came to the United States in 1926 that she began serious dance studies. Settling in New York, she worked with Martha Graham and performed with her company from 1929 to 1931, when an injury ended her performing career and diverted her into teaching. After a short stint as Martha Hill's assistant at Bennington College, she began to teach at Sarah Lawrence College. In 1941 she took over the chairmanship of the dance department, a position she held until her retirement in 1975. Schönberg brought luminaries of modern dance to the college and developed an approach to teaching composition that guided student choreographers toward what she deduced they were trying to create rather than impose her own style or taste. After retiring from Sarah Lawrence, she taught composition at many institutions including the Juilliard School and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and served as artistic advisor to The Yard.

An undated photograph of a class at the School of American Ballet. (Photograph from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

The foremost academy of classical dance in the United States, the School of American Ballet was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1934. Their goal was to train students for the "American ballet" both aspired to create, a dream realized with the founding of the New York City Ballet. In the early years Russians dominated the school, and there were more adult than children's classes. This changed dramatically in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when grants from the Ford Foundation enabled the School to recruit nationally. Although Balanchine died in 1983, the School remains closely identified with his style and technique. Pointe work is emphasized, along with clarity, energy, and attack. The New York City Ballet's distinctive company style is partly the result of all the company's dancers receiving advanced training at the School. The annual June workshop, in which advanced students participate, is an eagerly awaited event. Over the years members of the School's distinguished faculty have included Felia Doubrovska, Alexandra Danilova, Anatole Oboukhoff, Muriel Stuart, Stanley Williams, Suki Schorer, and Kay Mazzo. www.sab.org

Ted Shawn. (Photograph from the archives of Jacob's Pillow, Becket, Massachusetts.)

A pioneering figure of modern dance, champion of the male dancer, and founder of Jacob's Pillow, Ted Shawn (1891-1972) was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He took his first ballet lessons after a serious illness left his legs temporarily paralyzed, subsequently abandoned the ministry, and made his professional debut in 1913 as a ballroom dancer. The following year he joined Ruth St. Denis, became her partner, and married her. Together they founded the Denishawn school in Los Angeles and nurtured the company from which Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and so many other celebrated modern dancers later emerged. When Denishawn broke up (along with his marriage to St. Denis), Shawn formed an all-male dance troupe based at his Massachusetts retreat Jacob's Pillow. His goal was to gain acceptance for the male dancer by emphasizing masculine movement and displays of strength; a number of dances were on Native-American themes. The Men Dancers toured successfully throughout the 1930s. The country's oldest summer festival, Jacob's Pillow remains a tribute to Shawn's love of dance in all its forms.