José Arcadio Limón

Mexican-born dancer and choreographer

• Born: January 12, 1908
• Birthplace: Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
• Died: December 2, 1972
• Place of death: Flemington, New Jersey

A dancer, choreographer, and founder of his own dance company, Limón established the role of the male dancer in modern dance.

Early Life

José Arcadio Limón (ahr-KAH-dee-oh lee-MOHN) was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. His father was a musician and teacher; his mother was a homemaker. The couple had eleven children, of which Limón was the oldest. Limón’s mother was a devout Catholic and raised her children in the ways of the church.

When Limón was young, the Mexican Revolution forced his family to move often in attempts to avoid violence. When he was seven, the family crossed the border into the United States. The move immediately lowered their standard of living. In Mexico, musicians often were supported by the government, but in the United States, his father found work scarce. The family moved often before settling in Los Angeles when Limón was twelve years old. He was interested in art when he was in high school and showed talent in that area.

When Limón was eighteen, his mother died in childbirth. Limón blamed the church and his father for her death and distanced himself from both. He studied art in California for a while, but friends persuaded him to move to New York City in 1928. He was disillusioned with art, since he idolized El Greco and knew that he could never reach that level of proficiency. By chance, Limón attended a dance performance of Harald Kreutzberg and was so moved that he felt that dance was his calling. He began taking classes with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman; when they saw his promise, they became his mentors and champions.

Amazingly, within a year of his first dance class, Limón was performing with a professional company. Most people begin training to become dancers in childhood, but he was nineteen when he discovered modern dance. By age twenty, he was performing for audiences.

Limón began living with Humphrey, Weidman, and Pauline Lawrence. All were immersed in the American modern dance movement. Limón became a part of their company and performed in works that they choreographed and produced.

Life’s Work

Limón began choreographing around 1930 with others from the Humphrey-Weidman company. Company members also often worked and performed at Bennington College in the summers. Limón was named a Bennington College choreography fellow in 1937. In 1938, he choreographed Danzas Mexicanas, his first major work. It was influenced by Mexican themes.

In the early 1940’s, Limón moved to California, expressing discomfort with Broadway and its lack of creativity; however he moved back to the East Coast soon after and married Pauline Lawrence, one of the colleagues he had lived and worked with while a part of the Humphrey-Weidman company. During this period, he choreographed Chaconne in D Minor (1942), a dance solo to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Limón was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 but was able to continue dancing and choreographing for Army shows while he served. On weekends and on leaves, he choreographed for a small company that eventually became the José Limón Dance Company. Doris Humphrey, one of Limón’s early teachers and mentors, retired from dancing because of a hip injury. She became the artistic director for his company and also choreographed many numbers to highlight Limón’s talents as a male solo dancer.

In 1949, Limón choreographed La Malinche, a work based on a major figure in Mexican history. Shortly after, he developed The Moor’s Pavane (1949), one of his best-known dances. This latter work was based on William Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice (pr. 1604, rev. 1623). It is one of Limón’s most famous works.

In 1950, Limón (by this time an American citizen) and his company traveled to Mexico City, where he was invited to establish a school and company. He created several new works for the Ballet Mexicano, including El grito, Los cuatros soles, and Tonantzintla in 1951. He soon returned to his company in New York and accepted a faculty position in the Dance Department at the Juilliard School of Music, where he taught for the rest of his life. In 1954, he became a cultural ambassador for the U.S. government, and his company was the first to participate in the State Department’s Cultural Exchange Program. In that year, they made a tour of four South American cities. In 1957, the company went on a five-month tour of Europe, including Poland and Yugoslavia, The company went to South America in 1960 and to the Far East in 1963, with sponsorship of the United States’ State Department. Limón died in Flemington, New Jersey, on December 2, 1972. The next year, his company continued its State Department duties with a performance tour to the Soviet Union.

Significance

Limón was a key figure in the history and development of modern dance. He choreographed a number of pieces that have become classics. He was a guest at the White House in 1962 and performed The Moor’s Pavane at a White House state dinner in 1967 for President Lyndon Johnson and King Hassan II of Morocco.

Bibliography

Dunbar, June, ed. José Limón: The Artist Re-Viewed. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 2000. Collection of essays about Limón by a number of individuals who knew him personally.

Limón, José. José Limón: An Unfinished Memoir. Edited by Lynn Garafola. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1998. This memoir, begun by Limón when he was near death, offers much detail about his life through 1942.

Mazo, Joseph H. Prime Movers: The Makers of Modern Dance in America. 2d ed. Hightstown, N.J.: Princeton Book Company, 2000. A basic history of modern dance that covers all the major figures in its development, including Limón.

Pollack, Barbara, and C. H. Woodford. Dance Is a Moment: A Portrait of José Limón in Words and Pictures. Pennington, N.J.: Princeton Book Company, 1993. A detailed biography of Limón’s life and work, based on extensive research.