John Martin covered dance for The Times. He led his Sunday news column this week with the upcoming return engagement of Ballet Theatre, the forerunner to American Ballet Theatre, at the Metropolitan Opera. The opening Easter matinee included "Romeo and Juliet," "Peter and the Wolf" and Michael Kidd's "On Stage!" The evening was devoted to "Giselle," Jerome Robbin's "Interplay" and "Gift of the Magi". The run had been extended through May 11.
Pearl Primus, an emerging African American artist at this time, was performing with her group that afternoon at the YMHA, one of the top venues for modern dance. The program would have a "primitive" and "modern section." The latter included "Spring Fever" set to an American folk tune and "Chamber of Tears" with words by Miss Primus. She was also appearing on Broadway in a revival of "Showboat."
The New York Society of Teachers of Dance, Inc. was having its final meeting of the season this day at the Hotel Astor
La Meri , born Russell Meriwether Hughes, was opening a subscription series of five lecture-recitals on Oriental and Spanish dance that day at noon at the Ethnological Dance Theatre, which she had founded. The regular weekly performances continued on Tuesday and Wednesday. This week's attraction was a solo with spoken commentary, "Around the World." "Ethnological" dances were big in 1946 with the artsy crowd.
Another advocate of ethnic dance was Ragini Devi. This week the subject of her Wednesday evening lecture-recital on the classical dance of India at India Dance Theatre, 154 W. 56th St. was "Provincial Rhythms." It included some English poems and Bengali songs by Rabindranath Tagore. Devi, who passed herself off at times as from India, was born Esther Luella Sherman in Michigan in 1896,. In her early career she appeared as an exotic dancing girl in Hollywood silents.
Charles Weidman and his company, featuring Nadine Gae and Peter Hamilton, were concluding a tour on Saturday with a performance that was part of the Students Dance recitals at the Needle Trades High School on West 24th St. Martin wrote that the company might be giving a series of dance performances this spring, either on Broadway or at its own Studio Theatre on W. 16th St. Weidman was one of the major names of modern dance mid-century. Hamilton and Don Liberto had been a couple for 62 years when Hamilton died at 90.
The Dance Center of the YM and YWHA, on Lexington & 92nd, was presenting a program next Sunday by the dance groups of Bennington and Sarah Lawrence colleges. Bennington was known as a modern dance mecca and the group was under the direction of Martha Hill, Nina Fonaroff and Jose Limon. On the following Sunday, the dancers from Bennett Junior College, Howard University, Penn and NYU would perform.
Martin also took note of Lee Sherman's staging of Frankie and Johnny as part of the Roxy stage show and the upcoming "Tale of Old Africa" at Carnegie Hall April 25 & 26. "Tale of Old Africa" was presented by The African Academy of Arts and Research as the latest in its annual festival of of dance and music. It featured "world famous African dancer" Asadata Dafora and a company of 50 singers, dancers and drummers. Tickets ran from $1.20 to $4.80. The Times ad noted that the special guests included Eleanor Roosevelt on the 25th and Katherine Dunham's Dance Group on the 26th, but did not inform how the former first lady would figure into a presentation of African dance.
The Dunham School for Dance ran ad ad for its spring quarter for adults and children. Katherine Dunham and members of her troupe would lead classes in the Dunham technique. Here is Dunham dancing to "Stormy Weather," one of several clips of her work on YouTube.
The school also offered classes in ballet by Todd Bolander of Ballet Russe, who would become best known for his long asssociation with the New York City Ballet, and in rhythm, tap and swing by Marie Bryant (see her in action here at YouTube.).
The school went beyond dance with speech training by Kate Warriner, speech coach for NY productions of "Hamlet" and "The Tempest," acting taught by by Alfred Saxe, playwrighting by prolific writer Philip Freund and theatre design by Jon Pratt, Dunham's husband. Somebody who called himself Primitivo taught Haitian folklore, and there were classes in Rhythms and Percussion, General Anthropology and French and Spanish. The school was at 220 W. 43rd St and lasted about a decade as the premier training ground for African American dancers. Here is an official Katherine Dunham website.