After Denishawn
Now on her own, Guy started off struggling, engaging in odd jobs including those of maid, cook and artists model . She auditioned for pieces but never got any roles, which she stated was because “the light skinned girls with the flashing eyes” got all the parts . Guy began to connect with other artists such as fellow African-American dancer/ choreographer Hemsley Winfield. She struggled with depression which disrupted her desire to start her own company but by March 1931 she was performing with the New Negro Art Theatre as a featured artist alongside Winfield. For this show, she choreographed and performed Madrassi Nautch, a variation of one of St.Denis’ most popular types of dances. Soon after, in April 1931 she co- directed the “First Nero Dance Recital In America” with Winfield during which she performed the piece A Figure From Angkor Wat. She also staged other works that year, including her “dance spirituals”, at the Chanin Theatre. In May of the same year she put on a concert at Harlem’s 138th Street Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in which her choreography was followed by St. Denis’ lecture entitled Dance as An Art. Guy also received mention in the August 1931 issue of Dance Magazine, announcing that she was to feature in an upcoming staging of Oscar Wilde’s Salome with the Sierra Leonean born Asadata Dafora. On May 7, 1932 Guy staged a concert at Roerich hall in a program organized by the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expressionism . where she performed five solos including African Plastique, her first piece in which she drew from African themes .
In 1937 Guy cemented her role as an organizer in the African-American dance community when she and Allison Burroughs staged Negro Dance Evening on March 7. This show catapulted Katherine Dunham’s company, which at the time included dancer/ choreographer Talley Beatty, into the limelight. The concert highlighted different cultures of the African diaspora . In the third part of the program, dubbed United States, the piece Shout was performed by Guy and Burroughs with Clarence Yates, Archie Savage, Leonard Barros . In the final section of the concert, Modern Trends, Guy performed her solo After Gauging. The program was concluded by a performance of Negro Songs of Protest, a piece co-choreographed by her and Burroughs. The show was reviewed in Dance Magazine and deemed “spectacular entertainment” . In that same year Guy organized “Dance International” which took place at Rockefeller Center and featured performances of about forty groups. In 1938 Guy opened a dance school in New York and in 1939 she served on the American Dance Association committee.
Read more about this topic: Edna Guy