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Collection Data
- Description
- Mary De Haven Hinkson (1925 to 2014) was an influential African American dancer, teacher, and choreographer. The collection dates from 1942 to 2012 and contains photographs from Martha Graham Company tours, oral history interview transcripts, correspondence, contracts, notes, programs, and other printed matter. A small amount of writing on dance and choreography elucidate Hinkson's thoughts on teaching and technique.
- Names
- Hinkson, Mary (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1943 - 2012
- Library locations
- Jerome Robbins Dance Division
- Shelf locator: (S) *MGZMD 478
- Topics
- Turney, Matt
- Martha Graham Dance Company
- African American dancers
- Modern dance -- United States
- Women dancers
- Choreographers -- United States
- Hinkson, Mary
- Genres
- Photographs
- Oral histories
- Correspondence
- Contracts
- Programs
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Mary De Haven Hinkson (1925 to 2014) was an influential dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She was one of Martha Graham's principal dancers and one of the first two black dancers to perform with Graham's company, where she danced from 1951 to 1973. Hinkson also danced with the New York City Opera, and was a frequent guest artist with other companies both in the U.S. and internationally. She taught dance at the Juilliard School (from 1951 to 1968), the High School of the Performing Arts, NY (from 1955 to 1960), the Dance Theatre of Harlem School, and for various other schools and companies. Hinkson died in 2014 at the age of 89.
- Content: The collection dates from 1943 to 2012 and contains photographs, oral history interview transcripts, correspondence, contracts, notes, programs, and other printed matter. A small amount of writing on dance and choreography elucidate Hinkson's thoughts on teaching and technique. The collection includes hundreds of black and white photographs taken by Hinkson whilst touring Europe and Israel with the Martha Graham Company. The majority of the images come from the 1954 tour, with a number from 1958, 1963, and 1967. The photographs, many of which have captions on the back, include candid shots and informal portraits of dancers, members of the orchestra, and others, such as Matt Turney, Joseph Bastien, Martha Graham, Yuriko Kikuchi, Clive Thompson, Simon Sadoff, Bertram Ross, impresario Anatole Heller, costume maker Ursula Reed, and producer Gertrude Macy. There are some images of street advertising for company performances.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 3.99 linear feet (10 boxes); 101 megabytes (5 computer files)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Identifiers
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b21408333
- MSS Unit ID: 24452
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): e6c4e060-4163-0138-1f9e-15f8897acbe6
