You're not old

If you've ever spent time with dancers, you have probably witnessed or participated in the drama of "I'm so old." My students would say this, to my bemusement, at age 19. They were so OLD - finally feeling the physical effects of late nights and repetitive use, no longer able to jump right into a split. I would counter - you're not old, I'M OLD - look at these creaking joints! I can hardly do a grande plié! Then, in would stroll my (not-so-very-much) older colleague, and we would begin again.

Today, as we bring Black (Dance) History Month to a close, I want to turn the light on the great Donald McKayle, who died earlier this year. He was 87. He was a masterful dancer, a beloved teacher, and a celebrated choreographer. But I don't think he was ever old.

McKayle's most famous piece is titled "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder," and it never gets old. First presented in 1959, "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" depicts a chain gang. The men strive and sweat, and one-by-one they dream of the women they long for. It is beautiful and haunting and all too relevant. We can argue the specifics of statistics, especially as regards the comparative incarceration rates of black men, but no one denies that the United States has both the largest per capita rates and largest total population of imprisoned humans in the world. We know that prisons are big business, and yet they find fewer and fewer resources for education and rehabilitation with every passing year. We also know that, no matter how you slice the numbers, black men are vastly over-represented. The pain McKayle showed us 60 years ago is still with us, so take a few minutes and watch.

"They killed another man/another man done gone/he had a long chain on."

However, if you take McKayle's master work to represent a choreographer filled with bitterness, you would be wrong. Check out THIS clip, which gives you another couple of minutes of dancing, but also a bit of McKayle himself.

McKayle was born in 1930, the son of Jamaican immigrants. That's the Depression for those of you paying attention. He lived through WWII, the Civil Rights Movement, the War on Drugs, and the election of the first black president of the US. He was inspired to dance by Katherine Dunham, and later worked with Pearl Primus, Martha Graham, and others. He created socially conscious works, won awards, performed, directed, and taught. He created the choreography for "Free to Be You and Me" and directed episodes of "Good Times."

In 2014, McKayle had retired from years of teaching at University of California, Irvine. But he continued to work with the dance ensemble, directing new work from a chair in the front of the class. His final choreography was created for Étude Ensemble there, and this short documentary gives us a window into the joy, energy, and wisdom he brought to dance till the end. I hope you will watch it, because if you do, you may never call yourself old again.

Donald McKayle has to be one of the sunniest artists that the oft-stressed world of American dance has ever produced. - Christopher Smith