Mary De Haven Hinkson (March 16, 1925 - November 26, 2014) was an African American dancer and choreographer known for breaking racial boundaries throughout her dance career in both modern and ballet techniques. She is best known for her work as a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company.
Personal life Hinkson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925 to a mother who worked as a public school teacher and a father who was a physician and the first African American head of an army hospital. Hinkson studied Dalcroze technique in a high school eurythmics class, as well as Native American dance forms at summer camp. Due to not being taken seriously as a living room dancer, she did not receive formal dance training until enrolling at the University of Wisconsin, where she studied with Margaret H'Doubler. During her summers at camp, she was excited to be taught by Doris Haywood and was truly set on fire for dance. Despite the fact that she “didn't even know what a plie was,” she was pushed to begin pointe work.
While she attended high school at Philadelphia High School for Girls, she learned formalized gymnastics and participated in competitions. Until she was able to gain proper training, this is what she assumed dance was.
In 1958, she and her husband Julien Jackson had their only child, a daughter, Jennifer.
She died of pulmonary fibrosis in Manhattan in 2014, aged 89.
Education When she began college at the University of Wisconsin, she was thrown into situations she was uncomfortable and inexperienced in such as basketball and soccer. Other courses she took included “English, French, history, zoology, and PE,” all of which she excelled and received A's and B's in. Thankfully, the university was one of the first to have a real dance major which Hinkson abandoned all of her previous credits to join.
Margaret H’Doubler, the head of the dance department, had a love for kinesthetic awareness and teaching scientifically which she shared by teaching her students how to test the limits of their bodies. One exercise Hinkson recalled was creating movement on the floor while blindfolded and then recreating it while standing for it to eventually piece together into a phrase. Mary loved learning under H'Doubler and the ways she coaxed out their individuality.
While at University of Wisconsin, Hinkson also learned from Louise, a technique teacher trained by Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm. She moved in an internal and lyrical style and taught primarily from Holm's technique. Even though Hinkson never saw Louise fully dance, she knew it was exquisite from the way she took up so much space pacing the front of their enormous studio.
One of the experiences Hinkson learned through was by joining Orchesis, a dance group that required an audition to get into. She was quite intimidated by the obvious experience the other dancers had, but made it into the group nonetheless. During her first performance with them in Orpheus and Eurydice, a local afro-american paper cited her and Matt Turney, who became lifelong friends, as being the first African American members. Orpheus and Eurydice was the piece that brought Mary to a real stage for the very first time, allowing her to feel concentration and the warmth of the lights like never before. Her teacher Louise remarked on the powerful projection she had during this performance, which was a great accomplishment for her considering the anxiety and fickleness that often caused her to skip out on rehearsals. After that, she didn't feel the same nerves about dancing in the theater again.
Mary graduated in 1946 and continued studying in graduate courses for a year before ending up as an instructor for the “Department of Physical Education for Women — one of the first black women to teach at any majority-white university”.
During her time at University of Wisconsin, Hinkson dealt with segregation and discrimination. Although African American students were allowed to enroll, they were often excluded from school events and barred from most dormitories and close rooming houses. Hinkson and Matt Turney lived at the Groves Women's Cooperative during their time at school.
Career It was at H'Doubler's encouragement that Hinkson first saw the Martha Graham Dance Company when they performed in Wisconsin in the 1940s.
During their junior and senior year, Hinkson and a few other students (Matt Turney, Miriam Cole, Sage Fuller Cowles) formed the Wisconsin Dance Group, got an old car, and travelled around the country booking performances and doing dances they choreographed. Hinkson was not the largest contributor to choreography due to her lack of experience, but their pieces were received very well. To keep the car running well, all of the dancers had to chip in $15 for gas and maintenance before paying themselves. They continued this after graduating.
Wanting to further their careers, they moved to New York hoping to train in Hanya's vein of work but found she was not teaching as much. They were unsure how to study dance, so they decided to concentrate at the Grand Studio.
After seeing Hinkson and Turney's talent and hearing who their teacher was, Hinkson was selected to perform in a 1951 demonstration by Martha Graham. This demonstration included works from Dark Meadows, Diversion of Angels, and Sarabande. Hinkson even filled in for a larger role when it was left empty and performed with Bertram Ross. After this performance, her talents were recognized by Martha Graham and she was asked to join the Martha Graham Dance Company, which was sponsored by the B. de Rothschild Foundation and opened April 13, 1953 at the Alvin Theater. She continued to work with the company and even joined one of YURIKO's experimental classes.
During Hinkson's first official season as a part of the company in 1952, Graham choreographed a role especially for her in Canticle for Innocent Comedians. For the 9 AM rehearsals, Hinkson would go back and forth between the studio and where she lived at International House by Juilliard. While she was rehearsing, Graham made Hinkson go out and get her own Dogwood branches for prop use during the role, which she found to be extensive and difficult. She recalled an idea Graham told her regarding commitment to the role- “You must take responsibility for your own role. If it's to be meaningful you must dress your hair, think how you're going to dress your hair... you have to participate.” Later when it came time to revive this piece, Graham resisted it.
In her early career, Hinkson struggled with lack of parental approval and money, sometimes only having $5 to her name. She made money by giving private lessons and learning to teach for an eventual career as a teacher at Juilliard School of Music, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Ailey School. In the early days of building up to this position, she was to demonstrate for eight weeks and lead an introductory course before moving up the food chain towards teaching company classes. When demonstrating for Graham, Hinkson would be verbally instructed in the moment as to what she should be doing and sometimes took a little bit longer to catch on. Hinkson didn't particularly enjoy the process and felt that it didn't provide a great understanding of what it meant to be an instructor. A maximum of 25 students were enrolled in each class.
Hinkson had periods where she worked with the New York City Opera. When she stopped at the drugstore on the way to her audition, she noticed a tall man in an aviator suit with a big dog. It turned out that this man was John Butler, the one she was auditioning for. She was selected to join the opera, but found out later that Butler had mixed up Mary Hinkson and Matt Turney and didn't actually ask to see Hinkson audition. Mary found working at the Opera to be a much more professional and reliable environment compared to the Martha Graham Dance Company. In comparing the two, she said, “There was none of this chaos that we always had. You know, we're in the company where we aren't ever told what you're gonna dance, we weren't given a contract, we weren't this, we weren't that, and if you dared to ask you were being insolent.” Between the years 1952 and 1953, Butler regularly took the opera to perform at the NBC Sunday morning shows for thirty minute time slots. The dancers became so practiced that they would do their makeup themselves before arriving on set. Sometimes during their rehearsals, Doris Humphrey would even come to watch and critique them. Hinkson had a wonderful time balancing both companies, but sometimes Graham, who was very dedicated to her patterns and methods and could be seen as uncompromising, would become upset at Butler for conflicting schedules.
Hinkson achieved the title of principal dancer in Bluebeard's Castle at the New York City Opera in 1953. She found the dance to be kind of frightening because she was lifted into the air a lot while standing on a 12 foot platform. Additionally, she was asked to audition for Balanchine's Figure in the Carpet in 1960. Although she was in many productions, she was not able to attend the company's Asian tour in 1956 because of her wedding that year.
In 1953, Hinkson stepped into the role of woman in white in Heretic when it was left empty. She worried about not being able to live up to the reputation of the previous woman in white. Yuriko comforted her by reminding her to make the role her own and not constrict herself because of someone else's abilities. Bob Cohen warned Hinkson not to get destroyed by the part like everyone else who played it. When Graham would not rechoreograph a particularly difficult knee drop for Hinkson, Yuriko helped her replace the movement. For a short time, Hinkson wore a pale pink for this role, but it was changed back to white after being referenced as “underwear pink” by a critic.
They then went on tour to Europe from February to June and travelled by boat, something that was uncommon for dance companies. The whole group had a fun time playing charades and games all together, which irked a seasick Graham. During their practices on tour, Graham worked them to death in the freezing cold weather, which made them take great advantage of the sometimes long and luxurious breaks in between rehearsals.
During their time in England, Graham almost cancelled a premiere because of an unfinished piece. Their producer would not let that happen, so Hinkson and the company had to work extra hard to improvise and fill in the blanks which gave them a lot of practice at thinking on their feet. They left England after three weeks with poor reviews, which Hinkson felt was partly due to the audience not seeing past Graham's more mature age to the performer side of her.
The company was very excited to arrive in the Netherlands as it was much warmer there. The audience reaction was also vastly different; at times the police had to hold back the crowds pushing to get in. They performed in lecture/demonstration formats doing pieces like Letter to the World, Appalachian Spring, Diversion of Angels and Canticle for Innocent Comedians. Hinkson was in many of these pieces, but also had the chance to watch some of them from the front with Turney.
Hinkson returned in August after staying in Europe to travel a little longer. She was enticed to stay by friends she made in Jack Cole's company and the refreshing days they had together, but ended up coming back to New York. Martha wanted everyone to go on tour again to the far east, but Hinkson refused to go. The company was gone from the end of 1955 to 1956.