by Jerome Espinosa Baladad

Created on: September 27, 2010

The highly regarded modern dance choreographer, dancer, and mentor-teacher José Arcadio Limón was born in 1908 in Culiacan, Mexico. His family moved to the USA in 1915, first in Arizona, then to California. He studied initially as an art major at the University of California Los Angeles.

Realizing for himself the futility of pursuing the art of painting, he decided to move to New York City in 1928, where he saw his first dance performance by Harold Kreutzberg and Yvonne Gerogi. The experience of watching them perform strongly moved him, such that he was prompted to eventually enroll and study dance in the Humphrey-Weidman School of Dance.

He also performed on Broadway (“Lysistrata” being the first). He was also featured in a Broadway musical revue, “Americana,” that showcased the dance choreography works of Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. By 1937, he created his first major choreographic work, Danzas Mexicanas, while in residency at Mills College, as part of the Bennington Festival. During this period, he was also featured as a dancer in “Keep off the Grass” on Broadway, which was choreographed by George Balanchine.

From 1943 to 1945, he served the US Army. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and completed several works featuring his choreography for the Army’s Special Services. Following his military discharge, he formed his own dance company with Doris Humphrey, his mentor and teacher, as Artistic Director and co-choreographer.  “The José Limón Dance Company” (The JLD Company) had its debut performance at New York’s Belasco Theater. Reviews of the event were almost ecstatic, with The New York Times hailing Limón as “the finest male dancer of his time,” and highlighting as well the creative tandem created by Limón and Humphrey. The JLD Company appeared, too, at the first Connecticut College American Dance Festival, where it remained in residence each summer until 1973.

In 1949, Limón created and had the first premiere of “The Moor’s Pavane,” considered by most critics as his masterpiece, and among the most widely performed modern dances in the world. For this work, Limón received his first Dance Magazine Award.  Limón also started teaching in 1951 in the Juilliard School in New York, where he continued teaching and doing choreography until his death.

In 1954, Limón together with The JLD Company,

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