May O'Donnell (May 1, 1906 – February 1, 2004) was an American

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

r and choreographer. Born in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, May O'Donnell studied dance in San Francisco with Estelle Reed and performed in Reed's company before moving to New York City to study with Martha Graham. O'Donnell was a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1932 until 1938. In 1939, she returned to California and, with her husband, the composer Ray Green, and another former Graham dancer, Gertrude Shurr, founded the San Francisco Dance Theater. In 1941, O'Donnell joined creative forces with Jose Limon in a dance duo until 1942. She worked with the Graham Company again from 1944 to 1952 as a guest artist, at which time she created several roles notably the Pioneering Woman in "Appalachian Spring", Attendant in "Herodiade" (1944), She of the Earth in "Dark Meadow" (1946), and Chorus in "

Cave of the Heart ''Cave of the Heart'' is a one-act ballet choreographed by Martha Graham to music (''Medea'' suite) by Samuel Barber.Martha Graham Dance Company Repertory http://marthagraham.org/press-presenters2/repertory It was first performed on May 10, 1946, w ...

" (1946). In the mid-1940s she established the O'Donnell-Shurr Modern Dance Studio with Gertrude Shurr and continued the development of her own dance repertory. Throughout her career O'Donnell created 50 documented dances, from 1937 to 1988. Notably, in 1943 O'Donnell choreographed a modern-dance classic, "Suspension", a thirteen-minute composition. The dance was inspired by her memory of seeing a plane below the hilltop on which she was standing in wartime California. That work was best explained, she felt, by T. S. Eliot's observation in ''Four Quartets'' that "At the still point of the turning world . . . . there the dance is." She often included T. S. Eliot's words in the program notes. In the piece, dancers moved slowly amid large boxes under a turning mobile. O'Donnell retired from performing in 1961, but continued to choreograph through 1988. O'Donnell was also an important teacher who counted

Robert Joffrey Robert Joffrey (December 24, 1930 – March 25, 1988) was an American dancer, teacher, producer, choreographer, and co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet, known for his highly imaginative modern ballets. He was born Anver Bey Abdullah Jaffa Khan in Se ...

Ben Vereen Benjamin Augustus Vereen (born October 10, 1946) is an American actor, dancer and singer. Vereen gained prominence for his performances in the original Broadway productions of the musicals '' Jesus Christ Superstar'', for which he received a T ...

, Cora Cahan, and

Gerald Arpino Gerald Arpino (January 14, 1923 – October 29, 2008) was an American dancer and choreographer. He was co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet and succeeded Robert Joffrey as its artistic director in 1988. Life and career Born on Staten Island, New Yor ...

among her students. She is known for an original dance technique that has influenced generations of modern dancers. In 1974 the May O'Donnell Concert Dance Company was formed and located at the May O'Donnell Modern Dance Center at 429 Lafayette Street in New York City. There, O'Donnell and her staff taught the May O'Donnell Dance Technique until the studio was sold in the 1980s. O'Donnell died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

at the age 97 in 2004. In 2005, her biography, ''May O'Donnell: Modern Dance Pioneer'', was published by Marian Horosko.

References

External links

*Chujoy, Anatole. ''The Dance Encyclopedia''. (Simon and Schuster, 1967) *McDonagh, Don ''The Complete Guide to Modern Dance''.( Doubleday and Company, 1976) *''The New York Times'', February 7, 2004 * May O' Donnell and Marian Horosko "May O'Donnell: My Life in Dance, 1931-1951" Dance Chronicle, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2003), pp. 189–217.
May O'Donnell Papers
at Newberry Library
May O’Donnell papers, 1929-2004
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odonnell, May 1906 births 2004 deaths American choreographers Martha Graham Modern dancers Artists from Sacramento, California