A Martha Graham Dance Company alumnus, Mary Hinkson, who channeled an unrivaled dramatic force for dance, died Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89 years old.
The New York Times cited her daughter, Jennifer Jackson Hardy, and reported that the cause of death was pulmonary fibrosis.
In 1951, Hinkson and her roommate at the University of Wisconsin, Matt Turney, auditioned and set a precedent for all black dancers. The duo became the first two black dancers to join the ranks of the Martha Graham troupe.
For Mary, though, the context of her skin color was not the prism she wanted to be viewed through. "We will have to speak of the 'Negro dancer' until people are finally considered only on the grounds of their talent and merit," she told Dance magazine in 1966.
Hinkson overcame the racial adversity and transcended the genre and the merits of being a dancer of color.
While frequently being featured as a guest artist with other major choreographers, she also was a successful and influential teacher both in the U.S. and abroad.
Some of her notable roles took place between the 1950s and '70s. In the early '70s, in a revival of Graham's Deaths and Entrances, she appeared as Emily Brontë and left audiences "stunned." In 1960, George Balanchine invited Ms. Hinkson to dance with Arthur Mitchell in Balanchine's new Figure in the Carpet at the New York City Ballet.
The dancing world mourns the loss of a most influential performer and artist, both in dance and in life alike.
Cheers to Mary Hinkson. Join us at Classicalite as we remember her below:
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