UCI Libraries is proud to present “Donald McKayle: Dancing for All Time,” a retrospective exhibition on the life of the late Distinguished Professor of Dance, focusing on four components of McKayle’s life: dancer, choreographer, teacher, and activist.

The exhibition opens with a presentation and reception on Wednesday, November 7, 2018, at Crystal Cove Auditorium, UCI Student Center and Roger C. Holden Faculty and Graduate Student Reading Room.  5:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.  Refreshments and wine will be served.

You can rsvp to the event here.

Donald McKayle (July 6, 1930 – April 6, 2018) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, director and writer, and a long-time member of the UC Irvine faculty. He was among the first black men to break the racial barrier by means of modern dance.  McKayle was the first black man to both direct and choreograph major Broadway musicals, including the Tony Award-winners Raisin (1973) and Sophisticated Ladies (1981). As a young man he appeared with some of the twentieth century’s most important choreographers, including Martha Graham, Anna Sokolow, and Merce Cunningham, and in some of Broadway’s landmark productions, including West Side Story (1957), where he served for a time as the production’s dance captain.

A Tony Award and Emmy Award nominee, McKayle held an endowed chair for the last decades of his life in the Dance Department at UC Irvine, where he was the Claire Trevor Professor of Dance.

My husband received his M.A. and Ph.D from UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts and I had the pleasure of meeting Professor McKayle several times.  In addition to being a great artist, he had an extremely warm and generous personality. I am glad that UCI is offering this exhibit and retrospective of his life and work.