Blondell Cummings: Everyday movement as dance

Blondell Cummings (1944-2015), an American modern dancer known for her experimental choreography, was a prominent figure in the New York and Harlem dance worlds for several decades. Born in South Carolina, where her parents picked cotton, she was raised in New York City. With a BA in dance and education from New York University and a master’s from Lehman College, she was an original member of the avant-garde dance company “The House,” founded in 1968 by Meredith Monk. She went on to teach at several prestigious NYC-area universities and establish her own ensemble. In 1978, she founded the Cycle Arts Foundation, a discussion/performance workshop. Her goal, she said, was to “create a new ritual of empowerment to uplift the family.” “Blondell Cummings: Dance as Moving Pictures,” a collaboration between Art + Practice and the Getty Research Institute’s African American Art History Initiative, opened September 18 at A + P’s exhibition space and runs through February 19, 2022. This marks the first museum exhibition and book dedicated to the artist. Certain kinds of modern dance feature jerky, violent movements so desperate to be “original” and “subversive” that they become utterly divorced from human emotion or experience. Blondell Cummings does the opposite.…
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