NAME: Coleman, Stephen C.

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
5 November 1955, Paducah, Kentucky

DEATH DATE/LOCATION:
5 October 1995, New York City, age 39

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Photo: courtesy Keith King

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  • identification & bio
  • key contact
  • human repositories
  • video documentation
  • photographic documentation
    		•
  • movement notation
  • production materials
  • oral history
  • personal papers
  • immediate needs
    		•
  • other relevant information
  • overview of works
  • bibliography
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    IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
    A dancer in ballet and on Broadway, Stephen Coleman performed with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet Company, Puerto Rican Dance Theatre, Allan Tung Modern Ballet Company, Boston Ballet, and in the national tours of Fiddler on the Roof and Oliver! In 1983, he founded Stephen Coleman Dance Company and, simultaneously, became a dancer and regisseur with Omega, the resident liturgical dance company of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. He died of AIDS-related causes.

    KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
    Keith King, lover and executor
    200 West 70th Street, #3M
    New York, NY 10023
    212-724-2925

    Omega Dance Company
    1047 Amsterdam Ave.
    New York, NY 10025
    212-666-0256

    HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
    (name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
    Dac Campbell, Omega Dance Company dancer

    VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    None at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library. In Keith King’s closet, there are four videotapes from the Stephen Coleman Dance Company. According to King, these are of a decent quality and are well-marked as to their contents.

    PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Keith King has some casual shots of the Stephen Coleman Dance Company in rehearsal. Some are in boxes.

    MOVEMENT NOTATION
    (location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
    None identified.

    PRODUCTION MATERIALS
    (scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
    None identified.

    ORAL HISTORY:
    None identified.

    PERSONAL PAPERS
    (location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
    The personal papers are in the possession of Keith King. These consist of jottings in notebooks. Clippings, programs, and press releases are kept in standard file boxes at home. The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library holds a clippings file for "Coleman, Stephen," call number MGZR.

    IMMEDIATE NEEDS
    (archival assistance? storage? other?):
    Keith King would like to deposit the videotapes in a repository. He’s also interested in the possibility of gathering together the dancers from the Stephen Coleman Dance Company to create an oral history.

    OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
    According to Cara Esposito of Omega Dance Company, Coleman did not set any choreographic works on that company.

    Keith King notes that Coleman began to choreograph when he was already ill. "It was a race to the finish," says King (12 October 2000). As a result, the dances were not fully produced.

    Coleman performed in national tours of Fiddler on the Roof and Oliver!

    PARTIAL LIST OF WORKS
    (title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):

    Suite: Baby James (1993)—choreography by Stephen Coleman; music by James Taylor and Sam Cooke; performed by Don Philpot, Bertica Spenser, Julianna Carella, Miriam Bacot, Dac Campbell, and Ramon Galindo.

    Odette/Odile Meet Jacques Cousteau (1993)—comic choreography by Stephen Coleman; music from the film The Little Mermaid.

    No Hiding Place (1993)—solo by Stephen Coleman, inspired by May Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of Morning” written for the 1992 Inaugural of President Bill Clinton.

    Brahms Violin Sonata (1994)—premiered at the Hudson Guild Theater, New York; music by Brahms; a duet for Dac Campbell and Helen Rosenthal

    Christmas Medley (1994)—premiered at the Hudson Guild Theater, New York; Christmas carol selections; for five dancers?

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

    • Dance Magazine. 1996. "Obituaries: C. Stephen Coleman" (May): 50.
    • Dunning, Jennifer. 1993. "Dance in Review" [Review of Stephen Coleman Dance Company]. New York Times (5 July): 19.
         		 
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