Eleanor King

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Eleanor King

Born February 8, 1906(1906-02-08)
Middletown, Pennsylvania
Died February 27, 1991 (aged 85)
Haddonfield, New Jersey
Other name(s) Eleanor Campbell King
Occupation modern dancer, choreographer, professor
Years active 1927-1991

Eleanor Campbell King (1906–1991) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, and educator. She was a member of the original Humphrey-Weidman company, where she was a principal dancer in the pioneering modern dance movement in New York, then moving on to choreography and founding her own dance company in Seattle, Washington.[1] She was a professor emerita of the University of Arkansas, where she taught from 1952 to 1971, before retiring to Santa Fe, New Mexico to start a new course of study into classical Korean dance. She choreographed over 120 dance works, wrote two books, and contributed to many other publications. In 1948, she was named Woman of the Year in Seattle, and in 1986 was listed as a "Santa Fe Living Treasure", also receiving the New Mexico Governor's Artist Award. In 2000, her collection of work was recognized by the White House Millennium Council's "Save America's Treasures" program.

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[edit] Biography

King was born February 8, 1906 in Middletown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of George Ilgenfritz and Emma Kate Campbell King. She had a brother, John, and sister, Lucile. She attended Clare Tree Major School of the Theatre in 1925, and Theatre Guild School in 1926, studying dance with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman at the pioneering Denishawn School in New York City from 1927-1935.

When the Humphrey-Weidman dance company was formed, King joined, and made her 1928 debut in Color Harmony, considered the first American abstract ballet. In 1930, she appeared in Leonide Massine's Sacre du Printemps at the Metropolitan Opera House. She stayed with the company until 1935, when she began soloing and choreographing. In 1937 she was a co-founder of the Theater Dance Company, and her first major work, Icaro, was produced in 1938. She became known for choreography based on works of literature, from Petrarch to James Joyce.

In 1942, she formed the Eleanor King Dance Repertory Company in Seattle, followed by the Eleanor King Dance Studio in 1945. In 1955, she studied mime with Etienne Decroux. In the late 1950s, she began studying Japanese Noh dances. Her first performance of these was in Tokyo in 1958. She created the Theatre of the Imagination program at the University of Arkansas, where she taught for much of her career, from 1952 to 1971. She was an assistant professor from 1952-1967, associate professor from 1967-1971, and was awarded professor emerita status in 1971. In her retirement, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and at age 70 began studying classic Korean dance.

She became more famous in the 1980s, when revivals of her work were staged by Annabelle Gamson in 1987 and 1988 in New York. The solos were praised in The New York Times for their "eloquence and for Miss King's careful shaping of ideas and feelings".

King was a member of the Congress on Research in Dance, and director of Mino Nicholas's American Dance Repertory Theater, a position she held until her death on February 27, 1991 in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

In 2000, a grant for the preservation of King's collection of work was issued by President Clinton's White House Millennium Council, under the Save America's Treasures project. The materials, including 60 years of manuscript material, correspondence, personal papers, drawings, photographs, slides, costumes, books, articles, and reviews are being preserved by Cross-Cultural Dance Resources, a non-profit dance research organization in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2008, it was announced that the collection was going to be moved to the Herberger College of the Arts in Tempe, Arizona, for permanent curation.

[edit] Writing

  • The Way of Japanese Dance, 1970
  • Transformations: The Humphrey-Weidman Era (Memoir), Dance Horizons (Brooklyn, NY), 1978
  • (started) Transformations II: To The West

She also contributed to: Dance Observer, Christian Science Monitor, Northwest Times Weekly, Japan Quarterly, Dance Magazine, Journal of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Focus on Dance, Dance Research Monograph, Korea Journal, Arirang, Quarterly Journal of Performing Arts, Korean Culture, Dance Research Annual, and Music and Dance in California and the West, 1947.

[edit] Awards

  • Jane Cowl Romeo and Juliet Essay Contest, gold medal, 1923
  • Bennington School of the Dance, fellowship, 1938
  • "Woman of the Year", Santa Fe, 1948
  • Fulbright research grants, 1967, 1976, 1977
  • American Association of Dance Companies, honoree, 1975
  • Vogelstein Foundation grant, 1976
  • Santa Fe Dance Umbrella, 1980
  • Santa Fe Living Treasure, 1986
  • New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, 1987
  • National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1988

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dunning, Jennifer. "Eleanor King, a modern dancer and choreographer, dies at 85", New York Times, 1991-03-02. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links