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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2014
Cultural arts institutions have played a significant role in the life of Black Philadelphians since the 1920s. Such organizations as the Philadelphia Concert Orchestra, Dra Mu Opera Company, and Heritage House (Visual and Performing Arts Center) were efforts to preserve and promote the traditions of African American culture. (“Black” and “African American” will be used interchangeably here.) Dance schools have traditionally received ardent support from the community and were established because of limited opportunities for Black youth to study dance in Philadelphia.
Marion Cuyjet's Judimar School, the Sydney (King) School of Dance, Arthur Hall's Ile Ife Black Humanitarian Center, and Joan Myers Brown's Philadelphia School of Dance Arts were key institutions that created a vital training environment for dancers, dance educators, and dance companies that emerged between the late 1940s and early 1970s. Cuyjet and King studied with dance pioneer Essie Marie Dorsey in the late 1930s. Hall and Brown were students of Cuyjet and King and established themselves as third generation leaders who created dance companies as well as schools.
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2. Philadelphia was a mecca for vernacular dance entertainers and it nurtured artists such as Honi Coles and the Nicholas Brothers.Google Scholar
3. Ballet studios in New York were closed to African Americans until the late 1940s. Dorsey passed for Latino in order to enroll in leading dance schools before that time. She also studied privately with Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Mikhail Fokine, Mikhail Morkin, and William Dollar. See White-Dixon, Melanye, “Marion Cuyjet: Visionary of Dance Education in Black Philadelphia” (Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University 1987), pp. 18–24.Google Scholar
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15. Heritage House, the leading cultural arts institution in Black Philadelphia between the early 1950s and 1971, ushered in an arts renaissance. The center offered classes in the visual and performing arts, housed an art gallery and library, and sponsored numerous music, dance, and theater events. See White-Dixon, Chapter 3.Google Scholar
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26. Ibid.
27. Brown, Joan Myers, interview by author, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1985.Google Scholar
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32. One of Judimar's most successful recital pieces was The Black Doll, choreographed by John Hines. The work utilized African-Caribbean folklore, and the movement was inspired by Dunham technique. Cuyjet, King, and Hall always included a Dunham-based work in their concert presentations.Google Scholar
33. Cuyjet, Marion, interview by author, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 18, 1985.Google Scholar
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36. Walter Nicks, telephone interview by author, Columbus, Ohio to Raleigh, North Carolina, March 26, 1989. Nicks states that there was a close social bond between Philadelphia Dunham enthusiasts and students and New York Dunham School faculty. Nicks considered Philadelphia a “second home.”One of Nicks' early Dunham technique teachers, Claude Marchant, taught the technique and established a dance program at the Wharton recreation center in North Philadelphia during the mid 1940s.Google Scholar
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38. See Aschenbrenner's, Joyce Katherine Dunham. Reflections on the Social and Political Contexts of Afro-American Dance, Cord Research Annual XII, (New York: Congress on Research in Dance Inc.), pp. 67–68 for a discussion of the influence of Dunham technique on the work of second and third generation modern and jazz dance proponents.Google Scholar
39. For information regarding former students who have established successful careers as dance educators see White-Dixon, pp. 194–197.Google Scholar