Immigrant artists and artists of color, marginalized and excluded in their own lands, have largely been erased from dance history despite their pivotal contributions to contemporary performance. Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900-1955 illuminates these unknown and underrepresented artists whose dance artistry forged our understanding of modern dance and cultural and national identity. Mapping how the crucial concept of the border geographic, national, legal, spiritual, even psychic--fed the articulation of a distinctly American modernity, Border Crossings charts the geographic and aesthetic migration of many artists, including Ada Overton Walker, Josephine Baker, Michio Ito, Carmen Amaya, Syvilla Fort, Si-Lan Chen Leyda, Katherine Dunham, and Jose Limon. Border Crossings surveys these artists' heroism and hidden narratives through photographs, rare film footage, artwork, costumes, scenic designs, and other extensive documentation. Modern dance artists' confrontations at the border--forced and willed--shaped early twentieth-century philosophies of "the modern" in dance to include the experience of exile, displacement, and newfound identity. This tour is first come, first served and requires no registration.
Manhattan, New York, NY