José Limón (1908-1972)
Dancer and choreographer. Born in Culiacán, Mexico, he moved with his family to the US, first to Tucson, AZ, and later to Los Angeles. As a child, Limón studied painting and the piano. In 1926 he began studying painting in UCLA, but did not complete his studies, and in 1928 he moved to New York to study at the New York School of Design.
In 1929, Limón was inspired to dance after attending one of Harald Kreutzberg and Yvonne Georgi’s performances, and decided to quit his visual art studies and enroll in the Humphrey-Weidman school where he studied with Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Pauline Lawrence. He soon joined the Humphrey-Weidman Company where he was active for ten years, first as a dancer and later as an emerging choreographer. In 1930, he choreographed his first dance, Small Group, and became a partner/choreographer in the company in 1937. At the same time, he also performed on Broadway. In 1940 Limón moved to San Francisco and established a dance company with May O’Donnell and Ray Green. He returned to New York in 1942 and resumed his partnership with Humphrey-Weidman.
In 1943, Limón was drafted and served in the military as a dancer and choreographer in performances for soldiers. In the weekends, he began choreographing for a small company he established, under Humphrey’s artistic direction. This formed the basis for the Limón Dance Company established in 1946, the year when he became a US citizen. The company visited Mexico in 1950, and Limón was invited to open a school and a company in Mexico City. He choreographed some works for the Mexicano Ballet Company, but in 1951 he returned to his company in New York, and continued choreographing for it until shortly before his death. That same year, he began teaching in Juilliard, where he continued to teach for many years.
Limón choreographed more than 70 works, including The Moor’s Pavane (1949), The Demon (1963), and Psalm (1967). With his company, he perfected the method now known as the Limón Technique. Batsheva performed two of his works in 1969: The Exiles and La Malinche.
Limón was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dance Magazine Award (1950, 1957), Capezio Award (1964), and four honorary doctorates from Wesleyan University (1961), University of North Carolina (1965), Colby College (1967), and Oberlin College (1969).
José Limón died in 1972.