Annotations for People: Donald Mckayle

Then Doris Humphrey was there in Martha Hill.

I was in a company Sophie Maslow Dance Company.

Yeah. Sophie Maslow, Jane Dudley, and William Bales had a company called the New Dance Group Company. I was a member.

Well on a certain day of the week all the members of the company could present things. This was one day of the week. Here they are.

Here I am Donald McKayle, speaking words of wisdom.

Were given a chance to present their work and this is one that I had worked on, so I presented it.

Yes, it was very unusual and I remember when Martha Hill came talking to me about y direction. She wanted me to do more things that wasn't being done. Doris Humphrey came with a lot of records for me. They were records like The Impressionist.

Of course. They had to do work about people who are in stature. I broke a lot of rules. I keep on breaking them.

Yes. I had a book of poetry of black artists and I liked this one, so I chose it.

I met him, yes.

He was teaching at a high school, PS 136, I think. Public school 136. He was not that far from me. Next door to me was his aunt, Aunt Ida. He would come over to stay with her and have dinner with her, and she introduced me to him. That's how the connection came.

No, I studied in New York first.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Yes. I remember very well because it was my first company. I remember them.

What I remember as a child all of that is my personal memories.

(singing) I sang the songs with one of the girls that was in the company, Shaniqua Baker. Later when I revived it I sang it with my daughter. She was an adult by then.

Mm-hmm (affirmative). I did it here once.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Not for quite a long time. I set it on Janet Alba who you see on the video. She now is the director of the Martha Graham Company.

I don't remember.

You were always there asking me.

I guess I would call it stalking.

I did it there.

I remember we were talking about what they had seen and Eliot Feld said, "And he [inaudible 00:06:29] and so on." He was a nice kid.

No. Just you.

Wipe my nose.

Thank you.

You want to start?

She didn't come down here.

Hey Mia. ... because there's steam coming out of them. Then it's in front of a business and the people are saying, "Get away. Go on." They're chasing away, so that's the setting that she starts from.

Very good. You really studied that tape very well.

I'm very impressed.

Isn't she terrific?

I'm impressed. I'm impressed. I'm impressed.

It's so different from what you showed me and I kept saying, "How did she get there from what I taught her?"

I kept remember that. I said, "What is she doing?" When I started I just taught you. I kept saying, "Where are you going? What's happening?"

It's just terrific.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

You can spread your legs wide, wide, wide.

There you go. Yes.

Well, you're asking people that are passing by for money and they pay no attention to you. You have to bring it forward every time you see someone.

On the street. A street person. She has all the afflictions of what it is to live on the street.

I was just remembering this because I went to the emergency room and there was three people there. The police came and took them away because they weren't sick. They were just there to keep out of the cold. They had stories about being sick. They were very bright.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

There was a man and woman, I don't know whether they were up here, I think they were. He was ... His tummy, sometimes, would see his backside. Very strange experience being there. When I remembered this dance and how I got in to do it ... I was a very strange young boy.

I was an artist. Things appealed to me that didn't appeal to other people. I remember Doris Humphrey and Martha Hill both coming to me and saying I should do other kinds of dances. Doris Humphrey gave me a group of records, which they were impressionist music. They were nice, really very nice. That was what I was doing at the time.

Martha Hill.

Yeah, she was the director of Juilliard Dance program.

Yes.

I took some classes. I came and just took classes.

They liked me. They liked me so they're like, "Come on in."

I was a good mover. I could dance.

Not very often. I wasn't very much older than you were at that time.

I was-

Well, most of them found me all out all the way.

I could dance then so it's different than being in a chair. I could do all those things.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I remember the dancers that were in my first company very well. Some of them are dead now. I kept on living. Like Louanna Gardner, she was just lovely. She was also a lingerie model.

She was lovely. And Eliot Feld who now has his own company, he was there.

Mm-hmm (affirmative). George Lika, he's not a dancer anymore. You wouldn't know him. They're all old like me. I'll be 88 in July

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

6th.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Oh, right on Independence Day.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Yes.

Yeah, they did it. They continuing dance company. They didn't [inaudible 00:26:55]. I was so happy.

When you see one of your favorite and important dances in your career being done again by fabulous dancers ... they were great.

(singing) It always comes in the middle of the break.

You have a wonderfully strong voice.

Yeah.

That's be great.

Yeah.

Yes.

No, she's asking for food or money.

People just pass her by.

That's right.

He knows what I think all the time.

At the end when you're saying about, "Only kind of middle wife," where are you?

Fine.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Yeah, that's at the beginning.

That's implements of battle.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Like that yeah.

Like that, yeah.

It's down.

Yeah, spread them. Spread them.

You have another hour.

Weren't they all so clean.

A few notes.

I don't remember. It was long ago. 48.

It was long ago.

I didn't have anything like that. No computers or any of this.

Rags.

Get out of here. Get out I said.

That's it.

The throat.

Hello dear.

Yes.

I like it with the bandana.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Fine.

Nothing like what I wore.

What I wore.

I remember some things, but other things are just smokey in my head.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

You done good.

It was first done by me.

Well, Janet many years later.

I did it when I was 18.

Yeah.

I think you're terrific.

It's happening now.

I was precocious.

I lived through a lot of them.

I lived through a lot of them.

No. Not at all.

I want them to do what's inside their soul to let it come out. Each one should be individual because they are. We have to have a need to do dances. I want to do this. This is something I want to show. I don't know how I came about that when I started to do dances before I learned to dance. I really didn't think of that.

[inaudible 01:10:33] 17 pirouettes.

Oh, I think you're wonderful.

Billy Holiday Theater.