Mary Hinkson - Breaking Racial Boundaries Through Dance

DSA
Feb 27, 2021
2 min read

Hello Dancers! I hope your first week back hasn't been too rough on you! This week's Friday Feature is Mary Hinkson! Hinkson was an influential dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She was one of Martha Graham's principal dancers and one of the first two black dancers to perform with Graham's company.

Born in Philadelphia, Mary Hinkson received her first dance training in a high school technique class through body movements. Hinkson attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she studied dance with Margaret H’Doubler and received both her B.S. and M.S. degrees in physical education. H’Doubler was actually the one who introduced Hinkson to Graham's work! After graduating from university, she and three other students, including Matt Turney, formed the Wisconsin Dance Group, which toured around the Midwest. Hinkson and Turney then went to New York University, where they completed an eight-week course with Graham. They joined her company in 1951, becoming the first black dancers to do so. At the peak of the civil rights movement, Hinkson broke plenty of boundaries in the dance world and resisted being defined by her race.

Hinkson's performances with Graham included Cave of the Heart, Seraphic Dialogue, Clytemnestra and Diversion of Angels (one of her signature roles). In 1963, she performed the title role in Circe, which Graham created for her. Hinkson also worked with other choreographers when Graham's company was not performing, including John Butler and Glen Tetly. Hinkson and other star dancer from Graham's company, Bertram Ross, briefly directed Graham's company in the early '70s while Graham was ill. By this time, Hinkson was a well-known teacher in the United States and abroad. She resigned from the company, and retired as a dancer, in 1973. She had also received the prestigious Martha Hill Award before her passing in 1983.