May 22
Born Today:
Daniel Nagrin
Dancer Daniel Nagrin (1917-2008) is best known for his character-driven jazzy modern solo dances Strange Hero (1948) and Man of Action (1948). Writer Don McDonagh said of his choreography, “For him, jazz was not a finger-popping, torso-twisting genre of self-involvement but a tool to explore character”. Nagrin also collaborated on many projects with his wife, modern dancer Helen Tamiris (c.1905-1966), including Annie Get Your Gun (1946) on Broadway. During the last part of his career Nagrin worked at Arizona State University and wrote several books including How to Dance Forever: Surviving Against the Odds (1988).
Also Born Today: Ballet dancer Alberto Alonso (1917-2007) was the brother of Fernando Alonso (1914-2013) and co-founder of the National Ballet of Cuba. Alberto is best known for choreographing the Carmen Suite (1967) for ballerina Alicia Alonso (1920-2019), his sister-in-law. Both Uzra Butt (1917-2010) and her sister, dancer Zohra Sehgal (1912-2014) performed with Uday Shankar (1900-1977) in the 1930s. Butt formed a dance troupe in Pakistan in the 1960s and acted in a number of plays. Charles Moore (c.1928-1986) studied modern and African dance and performed with Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) before founding his own company in 1974. Ballerina Irina Kolpakova (1933-) danced with the Kirov and teaches at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. Kabuki actor/dancer Kichiemon Nakamura II (1944-) was formally adopted by his maternal grandfather to pursue his performing career and has appeared in films and in a TV series Onihei Hankachō (1989-2016). Ballroom dancer Laneeka Barksdale (1972-2020), one of several dancers in her Detroit community to die of COVID in 2020.