Eleo Pomare was a Colombian-American modern dance choreographer.
20 Facts About Eleo Pomare
1.
2.
Eleo Pomare was born on 20 October 1937 in Santa Marta, Colombia, where on 19 June 1940 his sister Selina Forbes Pomare was born.
3.
Six-year-old Pomare was with his dad at that time and was rescued, but his father was never found.
4.
Eleo Pomare attended New Lincoln School in Harlem and later studied at New York's High School of Performing Arts, where he was mentored by Verita Pearson prior to graduating in 1953.
5.
Eleo Pomare founded his first dance company in 1957, called Corybantes, but dismantled it to travel to Europe to study and perform with Kurt Jooss and Harold Kreutzberg in Essen, Germany, on a John Hay Whitney scholarship.
6.
Eleo Pomare established his own dance company in Amsterdam, Netherlands, called the Eleo Pomare Modern Dance Company.
7.
Eleo Pomare returned to the United States in 1964, when he revived and expanded his company.
8.
Eleo Pomare performed at the Waltann School of Creative Arts in Brooklyn in November 1967.
9.
Eleo Pomare choreographed the work for Elizabeth Cameron Dalman in New York during 1966, and it was widely toured by Dalman in Europe and Australia from 1966 to 1987.
10.
One of the company's signature pieces developed by Eleo Pomare was called Blues for the Jungle, originally titled Harlem Moods, as it depicted life in Harlem, New York.
11.
In 1986, in honour of Nelson Mandela, Eleo Pomare created Morning Without Sunrise, set to music by Max Roach.
12.
Eleo Pomare toured to Adelaide, South Australia, in 1972, to perform at the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
13.
Eleo Pomare came to the attention of Aboriginal Australian activists after refusing to perform at Chequers Theatre, situated in the suburb of Nailsworth, north of Adelaide city centre.
14.
Eleo Pomare deemed it unsafe for the type of performance, and an inferior venue, and he insisted that his company be treated with respect.
15.
Eleo Pomare performed Blues for the Jungle on this tour, which, according to Johnson, "really excited the blacks who saw for the first time how the contemporary arts could be used to convey relevant social messages".
16.
Eleo Pomare toured to Sydney, supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.
17.
Eleo Pomare toured North America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, performing in Lagos, Nigeria, for FESTAC '77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture.
18.
Eleo Pomare died of cancer in Manhattan, New York, on 8 August 2008.
19.
Eleo Pomare is often considered the angry black man of modern dance, although he did not consider himself angry or bitter, but that he is rather "telling it like it is".
20.
Eleo Pomare said that he had a strong influence in Australia, the legacy of his 1972 visit to Adelaide.