June 22, 1909 - Katherine Dunham: "Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out." At the apex of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, Dunham was famous throughout Europe and Latin America, if not quite so popular in the USA. … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Eartha Kitt
January 17, 1927- Eartha Kitt had precisely the qualities that make a true Gay Icon: a history of anguish, abandonment & alienation, mixed with a campy & sexually audacious stage act with the necessary elements of artifice & aggrandizement. Plus, there is that unique, … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Dancer, Choreographer, Alvin Ailey
January 5, 1931- Alvin Ailey: “Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.” I am savvier about Dance than most civilians because I once had a boyfriend who was a professional dancer. I … [Read more...]
Happy Times
Eartha Kitt and James Dean in a dance class at the Katherine Dunham studio in New York, 1955. (Photo via Kool Cats and … [Read more...]
