A modern dancer and choreographer who mined everyday experiences like washing, cooking, and building to create her very personal works, Blondell Cummings (1944-2015) was raised in New York City after moving with her parents from South Carolina. Cummings studied with Thelma Hill and Martha Graham, and earned a bachelor’s degree in dance and education from New York University and an MFA from Lehman College. She began her career as an original member of the House, the company founded by Meredith Monk in 1968, and she later oversaw her own ensemble and taught widely. Cummings’s most famous work was the solo Chicken Soup, designated as an American Masterpiece by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006. The solo seen here was part of a larger work entitled The Ladies and Me, inspired by great vocalists from the 1930s through the 1970s (here Odetta). At the time of this presentation—one of the first on the then-new Inside/Out stage—Cummings was both a Pillow faculty member and an artist-in-residence.
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