1. Eleanor Campbell King was an American modern dancer, choreographer, and educator.
15 Facts About Eleanor King
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Eleanor King was a member of the original Humphrey-Weidman company, where she was a principal dancer in the pioneering modern dance movement in New York City, then moving on to choreography and founding her own dance company in Seattle, Washington.
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Eleanor King was a professor emerita at the University of Arkansas, where she taught from 1952 to 1971, before retiring to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to start a new course of study into classical Japanese and Korean dance.
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Eleanor King choreographed over 120 dance works, and wrote extensively for a variety of dance publications.
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Eleanor King was the third of six children: Marion, George, Eleanor, Lucile, Robert and John.
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Eleanor King attended Clare Tree Major School of the Theatre in 1925, and Theatre Guild School in 1926, studying dance with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman.
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Eleanor King began taking classes from them, and was then invited to be a part of the new dance company.
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Eleanor King made her 1928 debut in Color Harmony, considered the first American abstract ballet.
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Eleanor King stayed with the company until 1935, when she began soloing and choreographing.
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Eleanor King became known for choreography based on works of literature, from Petrarch to James Joyce.
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Eleanor King created the Theatre of the Imagination program at the University of Arkansas, where she taught for much of her career, from 1952 to 1971.
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Eleanor King was an assistant professor from 1952 to 1967, associate professor from 1967 to 1971, and was awarded professor emerita status in 1971.
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The solos were praised in The New York Times for their "eloquence and for Miss Eleanor King's careful shaping of ideas and feelings".
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Eleanor King was a member of the Congress on Research in Dance, and director of Mino Nicolas' American Dance Repertory Theater, a position she held until her death on February 27,1991, aged 85, in Englewood, New Jersey.
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In 2000, Eleanor King's archived collection of work was recognized by President Clinton's White House Millennium Council, under the Save America's Treasures project.