Blondell Cummings
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Blondell Cummings (October 27, 1944 – August 30, 2015) was an American
modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th ...
r and
choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...
. She is known for her experimental choreography and was a fixture in the New York and Harlem dance scene for decades.


Early life

Blondell Cummings was born in
Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropol ...
, on October 27, 1944. When she was an infant, her parents, Roscoe and Oralee (née Williams) Cummings, moved from South Carolina to
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
. In South Carolina, her parents had been sharecroppers, growing cotton and tobacco,Cooper, Princess Mhoon. "Cummings, Blondell." ''African American National Biography''. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. ''Oxford African American Studies Center'' and when they moved to New York, her father worked as a cab driver and her mother as a domestic aid then a nurse. When Cummings was in her teens, her family relocated to
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
.


Career

Cummings received a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in dance and education from
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
and a master's in fine arts from
Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in New York City, United States. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, it became an independent college in 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman, a former New York governor, United ...
. She also studied at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She was a founding member of
Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordi ...
's company "The House". Cummings appeared in
Monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
's 1973
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
''Education of the Girlchild'' and
Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.
's 1976 film ''Kristina Talking Pictures''. By 1978 she created her own
art collective An artist collective or art group or artist group is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything t ...
, Cycle Arts Foundation, which promoted interdisciplinary collaboration. She spent two years (1978–79) as an artist-administrator for the Cultural Council Foundation CETA Artists Project in New York City, overseeing other dancers as well as choreographing and dancing her own pieces. Cummings went on to perform her work at venues including The Kitchen,
New York Live Arts New York Live Arts (Live Arts) is a movement-focused arts organization in New York City that serves as the home of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The building was formerly the home of Dance Theatre Workshop, with which the Bill T. J ...
,
Danspace Project Danspace Project is a performance venue for contemporary dance. Its performances are held in St. Mark's Church in the East Village area of the Manhattan borough of New York City. History Founded in 1974 by Barbara Dilley, Mary Overlie, and Larr ...
, 92Y, and others. She also toured widely across Africa and Asia, as well as across the country to venues including the
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Jacob's Pillow is a Dance studio, dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The facility itself was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2003. History The site of Jacob's Pi ...
where she was an artist in residence. Throughout her career, Cummings collaborated with artists including
Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid (; born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan–American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. Born in St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, she now lives in North Bennington, ...
, Jessica Hagedorn and
Ishmael Houston-Jones Ishmael Houston-Jones (born 1951) is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, curator, and arts advocate known for his improvisational dance and language work. His work has been performed in New York City, across the United States, in Euro ...
. She taught at universities, including
Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
,
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, and
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. Cummings died from
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
on August 30, 2015, in her home at Manhattan, New York City at the age of 70.


Select works


''Chicken Soup'' (1981)

One of Cummings's most well-known works was ''Chicken Soup'', a 1981 solo based on her childhood memories of her grandmother in the kitchen, featuring music by
Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordi ...
,
Collin Walcott Collin Walcott (April 24, 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American musician who worked on jazz and world music. Early life Walcott was born in New York City, United States. He studied violin and tympani in his youth, and was a percussion stud ...
, and
Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...
. In 1982 when
Ishmael Houston-Jones Ishmael Houston-Jones (born 1951) is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, curator, and arts advocate known for his improvisational dance and language work. His work has been performed in New York City, across the United States, in Euro ...
created the Parallels series at Danspace, ''Chicken Soup'' was the hit. In a review of a 1983 performance of the work, the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' observed,
All she did was stand beside a shopping bag, sit in a kitchen chair, scrub the floor and dance with a frying pan. But she plunged the viewer into a remembered time and place, when the ladies of the neighborhood sat around a kitchen table as real as any
Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Resettlement Administration and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great ...
photographed and talked of "childhood, friends, operations, death and money."
In a more recent article on
Ishmael Houston-Jones Ishmael Houston-Jones (born 1951) is a choreographer, author, performer, teacher, curator, and arts advocate known for his improvisational dance and language work. His work has been performed in New York City, across the United States, in Euro ...
,
Joan Acocella Joan Barbara Acocella (née Ross, April 13, 1945 – January 7, 2024) was an American dance critic and author. From 1998 to 2019, she was dance critic for ''The New Yorker''. She also wrote for ''The New York Review of Books'' for 33 years and a ...
of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
,'' wrote of the piece,
In 1981 Blondell Cummings made a dance, "Chicken Soup," in which, while scrubbing a floor on her hands and knees—an act of exemplary realism—she would repeatedly break off, rear up, and shake, in jagged, convulsive movements, as if she were in a strobe light. Then, with no acknowledgement of this interruption, she would go back, serenely, to scrubbing the floor. This strange back and forth made the piece very interesting psychologically: the floor-scrubbing so homey and soapy and nice (Cummings wore a white dress), the convulsions so violent and weird. Was this woman happy doing this domestic task, or did she hate it so much that she was going crazy?
The
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
designated ''Chicken Soup'' an ''American Masterpiece'' in 2006. As part of this designation, the work was reconstructed and re-staged at the
Joyce Theater The Joyce Theatre Foundation is a leading presenter of dance in New York City and nationally. It is runs, in part, from the Joyce Theater, a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea, Manhattan, Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in ...
in 2007 by the dance company
Urban Bush Women Urban Bush Women (UBW), founded in 1984 by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, is a Brooklyn, New York-based non-profit dance company and professional African-American women's dance company. The ensemble performs choreography by Zollar and several other chore ...
.


''Women in the Dunes'' (1995)

Commissioned by the Japan Society, this piece explores points of comparison and contrast between the experiences of an African-American woman and a Japanese woman. This piece was a collaboration with Junko Kikuchi and was based on the 1962 novel by
Kōbō Abe , known by his pen name , was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an Woman in the Dunes, award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kaf ...
titled ''The Woman in the Dunes.''


Awards

Cummings received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, and received Guggenheim and Robert Rauschenberg fellowships.


Legacy

Cummings was included in the documentaries ''Retracting Steps: American Dance Since Postmodernism'' (1988) and the PBS series ''Free to Dance: The African American Presence in Modern Dance'' (2001). A testament to her reputation in the dance scene and performance community, Cummings was on the
Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...
Selection Committee in for many years.


''We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women'', ''1965–85''

Cummings is included in this major group exhibit curated by Catherine Morris of the
Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...
's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and Rujeko Hockley, currently a curator at the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
. This exhibit was first shown at the Brooklyn Museum (April 21, 2017 – September 17, 2017) and traveled to the
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple name chang ...
in the summer of 2018 (June 27, 2018 – September 30, 2018).


References


External links


Video of Cummings performing ''Chicken Soup'' in 1989
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cummings, Blondell 1944 births 2015 deaths African-American female dancers African-American dancers American choreographers American female dancers Dancers from South Carolina American modern dancers People from Florence, South Carolina Deaths from pancreatic cancer in New York (state) African-American choreographers 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women City University of New York alumni Lehman College alumni