13 Facts About John Durang

John Durang was the first native-born American to become known as a dancer.

John Durang was the eldest of seven children born to parents who had immigrated to the United States from the Alsace region of northeastern France, bordering Germany.

John Durang was born in Lancaster, in the home of his mother's sister, but he grew up mostly in nearby York.

John Durang was educated at the Christ Lutheran Church school, where instruction was in German, supplemented by French and English.

John Durang had no formal dance training, but he was, according to his memoirs, attracted to the liveliness of the hornpipe, which "charmed his mind," while he was still a boy.

John Durang continued to dance to it for many years, as it had become his signature piece.

In 1790, John Durang danced a nautical-style hornpipe in The Wapping Landlady, a comic piece about an amorous landlady and a group of Jack Tars.

John Durang toured with the Hallam troupe for seven years, performing as Saramouche in a harlequinade called The Touchstone, while dancing and playing other roles.

Soon thereafter, John Durang danced with well-known ballerina Anna Gardie in La Foret Noire, the first serious ballet given in America.

John Durang worked as a writer, producer, and dancer with the Ricketts Circus, in Philadelphia and New York, from 1796 until 1799.

When Ricketts closed his shows, John Durang turned to theater management and became a partner in Philadelphia's famed Southwark Theater, where President Washington was a frequent patron.

From 1800 to 1819, John Durang acted, produced, and directed theater in Philadelphia during the winter while touring with his traveling troupe of performers to outlying areas during the summer.

John Durang died in 1822 at age fifty-four and, according to his expressed wishes, was buried in Saint Mary's churchyard in Philadelphia.