Donald Mc Kayle - Early Life and Influences

Early Life and Influences

McKayle was born in New York City on July 6, 1930 and grew up in a racially mixed, East Harlem community of African American, Puerto Rican, and Jewish immigrants. He was the second child of a middle class, immigrant family of Jamaican descent.

Growing up in an integrated neighborhood shaped McKayle's understanding of the social issues and racial prejudices in America during a time when racism and segregation was commonplace. McKayle was also influenced by his parents liberal and activist lifestyles. He was exposed to social dance and the exuberant social atmosphere of the West Indian parties his parents attended. McKayle's educational experience attending a public school outside of the Harlem community also heightened his social awareness. His political beliefs were influenced by his high school English teacher Louis Allen, also known as Abel Meeropol, author of the poem "Strange Fruit". And in high school McKayle joined the Frederick Douglass Society to learn more about African American history and heritage, a subject that was not taught in school.

But it was an inspiring performance by Pearl Primus sparked McKayle's interest in dance as a teenager. Despite his lack of formal dance training, McKayle auditioned and was granted a scholarship for the New Dance Group in 1947. McKayle was ambitious and eagerly took advantage of the company's formal training in modern, ballet, tap, Afro-Caribbean, Hindu, and Haitian dance forms. His instructors included modern dance pioneer Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow and Karol Shook. His noted mentors are Sophie Maslow, Jane Dudley, William Bales, and his first teacher Jean Erdman. Other instructors include Mary Anthony, Pearl Primus, Jean-Leon Destine, Hadassah, and Paul Draper. In less than a year, McKayle was choreographing his own complete concert dance pieces.