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SUPPLEMENTAL Teacher Resource:
why i had to dance distance learning program
Poet/playwright Ntozake Shangé’s choreopoem “why i had
to dance” propels the audience into the world of dance
through the poet’s experiences. Shangé describes it as:
“The story of black dance herself… the connectedness of
black dance from one generation to another generation and
from one region to another region, moving all around the
dance world from my childhood on.”
A panel of scholars and dance artists including Dianne
McIntyre, choreographer of this new Shangé choreopoem,
will share stories and contextualize some of the remarkable
dance traditions mentioned in the poem. Throughout the
broadcast will be examples of these movement styles by the
company of dancers working with Ms. McIntyre.
Panelists
April Berry
Master teacher & former Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater soloist
Dr. John O. Perpener III
Dance historian, author and dancer
Dianne McIntyre
Choreographer and dancer
Dr. Joy Bostic (Facilitator)
Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Community engagement and education programs at PlayhouseSquare are made possible by the generous support of foundations, corporations and donors.
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BIOGRAPHIES
NTOZAKE SHANGÉ is a renowned poet, performance artist,
playwright, novelist, children’s book author, and educator.
Her works have had a major influence in the worlds of
literature, theater, Women’s studies and African American
culture. Her seminal 1970s choreopoem for colored girls
who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf ran
on Broadway, toured internationally, won the Off-Broadway
Theatre OBIE award and was nominated for a Tony Award.
In 2010, a movie based on the play featured celebrated
actors.
Ntozake Shangé has the remarkable gift of transforming her
work from one form to another – from fiction to opera. Her
plays have been produced from coast-to-coast as well as in
Europe, from the Kennedy Center to The Lorraine Hansberry
Theater in San Francisco, to the Apollo Theatre to London’s
West End. She has received critical and commercial success
with works such as Nomathemba, Daddy Says, Spell #7,
Mother Courage, From Okra to Greens/A Different Kinda
Love Story and A Photograph: Lovers-in-Motion, and has
worked with dancers/choreographers Mickey Davidson and
Dyane Harvey. Musicians with whom she has had a long
creative relationship include Billy Bang, Kahil El’Zabar, Craig
Harris, Billy “Spaceman” Patterson and David Murray. She
received Emmy nominations for a television movie version
of for colored girls who have considered suicide when the
rainbow is enuf and Standing in the Shadow of Motown
(2002).
Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lila
Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, The Pushcart Prize, the
NAACP Image Award for her lifetime contribution to the arts,
the Legacy Magazine Award for Women of Strength and
Courage, the Humanitas Award and The Simon Wiesenthal
Center Museum of Tolerance Award.
Photo by Frank Stewart
Ms. Shangé, who grew up in St. Louis and New Jersey,
received a B.A. from Barnard College and a Master’s Degree
from UCLA. While living in the Bay Area, she explored the
potential of poetry, dance and music as a single unified art
form with dancers Halifu Osumare and Paula Moss. In
New York, she and Moss studied dance with choreographer
Dianne McIntyre with whom Shangé has had a long history
of collaboration. While in New York, Shangé continued
developing her choreopoem, for colored girls…, which was
first produced by Woodie King for New Federal Theatre,
then Joseph Papp at the NY Public Theater and then went
to Broadway.
Her works include novels Betsey Brown, Liliane, Sassafrass,
Cypress & Indigo and Some Cry, Some Sing which she coauthored with her sister Ifa Bayeza. Her latest book, lost in
language & sound: or how i found my way to the arts (St.
Martin’s Press) includes the poem, “why i had to dance.”
Ms. Shangé lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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A signature of her style is collaborating with musicians
(renowned jazz artists like Olu Dara, Cecil Taylor, Max
Roach, Lester Bowie, Don Pullen) and theatre artists. She
has choreographed a number of poet/playwright Ntozake
Shangé’s works. They will premiere her choreopoem “why
i had to dance” at Oberlin College and PlayhouseSquare in
February. Other upcoming events: choreography for Regina
Taylor’s Crowns at Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
For film and television, Ms. McIntyre choreographed Beloved
(Harpo/Disney), Langston Hughes: The Dreamkeeper
and Miss Evers Boys, for which she received an Emmy
nomination. Other awards include a John S. Guggenheim
Fellowship, numerous grants from National Endowment
for the Arts and other arts agencies, a Helen Hayes Award
(Washington DC theatre), AUDELCO Award (NY Black
Theatre), Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from State University
of NY, Creative Workforce Fellowship through Cuyahoga Arts
and Culture and the Cleveland Arts Prize.
Photo by Larry Coleman
Ms. McIntyre performed most recently in her solo work for
“FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance” at Oberlin College through
DanceCleveland as part of a tour managed by 651Arts based
in Brooklyn, NY.
DIANNE MCINTYRE, choreographer, dancer, teacher and
historical researcher, is a Cleveland, Ohio native who resided
in New York City as a dance artist for more than 30 years.
Residing once again in Cleveland, her choreography is seen
nationally in the modern dance concert world, in theatre, on
television and in film. She directed her NY based dance/music
ensemble Sounds in Motion which toured internationally and
operated a popular dance studio which mentored many
dancers who have continued with exemplary careers. Ms.
McIntyre has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theater as well as numerous other US professional and
university dance companies – most recently the Universities
of Michigan and Minnesota. For theatre, her work has been
seen on Broadway, including two plays by August Wilson,
in London and in 30 plays for US regional theatre including
LaJolla Playhouse, ArenaStage, CenterStage, Dallas Theatre
Center, Alliance Theatre, Crossroads Theatre and many
more. In Cleveland, her theatre works have been performed
at Karamu House, Cleveland Play House (Crowns and I
Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change) and by
Groundworks Dance Theater and Dancing Wheels.
Early dance mentors in Cleveland were Elaine Gibbs
Redmond, Virginia Dryansky and at The Ohio State
University, Ms. McIntyre was mentored by the
dance faculty and studied with guest dance artists.
(Family: Her mother, Dorothy Layne McIntyre, was an early
aviator and studied flight with men who became Tuskegee
Airmen; her sister, Dr. Donna M. Whyte, teaches African
American History and is Director of the Office of Diversity and
Multicultural Affairs at Cleveland State University; her niece
Miata Hunter is a classical vocalist and teacher of Math at
Shaker Heights Middle School; her niece Mariama Whyte
is an actor/vocalist/songwriter who toured with Disney’s The
Lion King and The Color Purple.)
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PlayhouseSquare and Oberlin College
Present Premiere of the Choreopoem
“why i had to dance”
Written by Ntozake Shangé, choreographed and directed by Dianne McIntyre
The “why i had to dance” project actually started in 2007
when barrier-breaking poet, playwright and novelist Ntozake
Shangé gave dance artist Dianne McIntyre a task – to develop
her poem into a compelling dance-theater work. McIntyre
spent some time working on the piece at PlayhouseSquare
in 2010 and it was seen in previews in May of that year.
“This is a ‘dream’ process. The kind you hear and read about
writers and choreographers having support to do with a
creative team and envying them,” explained McIntyre. “The
Launch program at PlayhouseSquare is the only initiative I
know of in this region of the country that could have given me
the chance to try out some ideas of putting Ntozake Shangé’s
poem into action. Not only was I given ideal rehearsal space,
theater space, time and a budget for a creative team and
performers for a brief period, I also got direct feedback from
the audience discussions. The audience comments have
guided the shape of the piece for this premiere.”
She went on to say, “In late 2010 when I mentioned the
project to Oberlin’s president, he immediately expressed
interest and then offered to help produce the work. Oberlin’s
support with masterfully styled costumes and a theatrically
dynamic set, rehearsal space, crew, and designers joined
with PlayhouseSquare’s support to bring together every
ingredient necessary to create a platform for a potentially
memorable work. This unique journey is a lesson in how
institutions can collaborate to bring a firm foundation to the
visions of eager artists. I am honored to be in the middle
of this whole festive happening and to bring Ms. Shangé’s
inimitable work to the Northeast Ohio public.”
Described by Shangé as an a-historical version of her
discovery of the different eras of black dance, “why i had
to dance” explores the connectivity of black dance from
generation to generation and from region to region.
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TERMINOLOGY
Choreography — The art of designing sequences of
movements in which motion, form, or both are specified.
Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is
sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The
word choreography literally means “dance-writing” from
the Greek words “χορεία” (circular dance, see choreia)
and “γραφή” (writing). A choreographer is one who creates
choreographies.
Choreographic techniques are: mirroring (facing each other
and doing the same), retrograge (doing a range of moves in
exactly the same order but backwards), cannon (a group of
people doing the same move but one after the other), levels
(people higher and lower in a dance), shadowing (stood
behind each other doing the same moves), unison (two or
more people doing a range of moves at the same time).
Cakewalk — The Cakewalk dance was developed from a
“Prize Walk” done in the days of slavery, generally at gettogethers on plantations in the Southern United States.
Alternative names for the original form of the dance were
“chalkline-walk,” and the “walk-around.” At the conclusion
of a performance of the original form of the dance in an
exhibit at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia,
an enormous cake was awarded to the winning couple.
Thereafter it was performed in minstrel shows, exclusively
by men until the 1890s. The inclusion of women in the cast
“made possible all sorts of improvisations in the Walk, and
the original soon changed into a grotesque dance” which
became very popular across the country.
Shimmy — In 1917, a dance-song titled “Shim-Me-ShaWobble” by Spencer Williams was published, as was “The
Jazz Dance,” which included the “Shimmy-She,” among
others. Flappers often performed the dance in the 1920s.
The origin of the name is often attributed to Gilda Gray, a
Polish emigrant to America.
Charleston — A dance named for the city of Charleston,
South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream
dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called
“The Charleston” by composer/pianist James P. Johnson
which originated in the Broadway show Runnin’ Wild and
became one of the most popular hits of the decade. Runnin’
Wild ran from October 29, 1923 through June 28, 1924. The
peak time for the Charleston as a dance by the public was
mid 1926 to 1927.
Developed in African-American communities in the United
States, the Charleston became a popular dance craze in the
wider international community during the 1920s. Despite
its origins, the Charleston is most frequently associated with
white flappers and the speakeasy. Here, these young women
would dance alone or together as a way of mocking the “drys,”
or citizens who supported the Prohibition amendment, as the
Charleston was considered quite immoral and provocative.
While the Charleston as a dance probably came from the
“star” or challenge dances that were all part of the Black
American dance called Juba, the particular sequence of
steps which appeared in Runnin’ Wild were probably newly
devised for popular appeal. “At first, the step started off
with a simple twisting of the feet, to rhythm in a lazy sort of
way. [This could well be the Jay-Bird.] When the dance hit
Harlem, a new version was added. It became a fast kicking
step, kicking the feet, both forward and backward and later
done with a tap.”
Source: “why i had to dance” Research Packet
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notable / historical Figures
Busby Berkley (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976)
Katherine Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006)
Nicholas Brothers: Fayard Nicholas (1914 – 2006); Harold Nicholas (1921 – 2000)
Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1910 – February 28, 1993)
Maria Tallchief (January 24, 1925 - )
Rod Rodgers (December 4, 1937 – March 24, 2002)
Alvin Ailey (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989)
Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003)
George Balanchine (January 22, 1904 – April 30, 1983)
Sterling Brown (May 1, 1901 – January 13, 1989)
Paula Moss
Chuck Davis
Carmen de Lavallade
Ifa Bayeza
Titos Sompa
The Young Lords
Additional Resources
Ntozake Shangé (1948 - )
http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1283/Shange-Ntozake-1948-Sidelights.html
Catching Up with Ntozake Shangé
Her innovations in stage verse and movement have inspired a new generation
By Will Power
http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/Apr07/shange.cfm
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
By Ntozake Shangé
Bantam Books
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