NAME: DeLoatch, Gary

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
c. 1953, Philadelphia

DEATH DATE/LOCATION:
2 April 1993, Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan, age 40

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Gary DeLoatch in Alvin Ailey's For Bird: With Love (1986).
Photo: © Jack Mitchell, courtesy Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

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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
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    IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
    An occasional choreographer and longtime dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Gary DeLoatch trained with Dance Theatre of Harlem and joined George Faison's Universal Dance Experience at age 19. In 1979, he became a dancer with the Ailey company, enjoying great success in many solo roles. According to Jennifer Dunning's obituary of DeLoatch in the New York Times, his triumphs were most appropriately realized in dramatic roles, such as Charlie (Bird) Parker in For Bird: With Love, which Ailey created on DeLoatch. Dunning's obituary also indicates that DeLoatch choreographed at the beginning of his career and, before his death, for young Ailey dancers. Cause of death was given as "a long illness," but it is generally acknowledged that DeLoatch died of AIDS-related complications.

    KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
    Obituaries indicate that DeLoatch was survived by his companion, Stephen Smith, of New York. Smith has not been located. Additional survivors were his mother, Margaret Ella DeLoatch; two sisters, Delores DeLoatch-Hart and Denise Inel DeLoatch; and a brother, Junious Irving DeLoatch, all of Philadelphia.

    Thomas DeFrantz
    associate archivist, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
    assistant professor of theater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    defrantz@mit.edu

    HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
    (name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
    Presumably, members of the Ailey company.

    VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library holds no videotapes of DeLoatch's choreography, though there are many documents of his dancing. DeLoatch's mother, Margaret, has said that she holds no videotapes.

    PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Margaret DeLoatch holds a set of photographs, as does Denise DeLoatch.

    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):
    None identified.

    IMMEDIATE NEEDS
    (archival assistance? storage? other?):
    Search for executor and in Ailey archives for evidence of DeLoatch's choreography.

    OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
    In an obituary, Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times asserts that DeLoatch did choreograph for the Ailey company and that he taught classes through the outreach programs, the school, and the company. None of DeLoatch's choreography is chronicled in the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library.

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

    This is the only work of DeLoatch's identified by Thomas DeFrantz, associate archivist of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, from the company's archives:

    Research (1983)—premiered 27 February in San Diego, New York premiere in 1983 season; music by Earl Klugh, The Brothers, Miles Davis, John McLaughlin; costumes by Carol Vollet Garner; lighting by Tim Hunter; featured separate casts for the two part of the piece, as follows— The Senses: Marilyn Banks, Patricia Dingle, Charles Epps, Daniel Clark, Norman Kauahi; States of Mind: Ralph Glenmore, Barbara Pouncie, Neisha Folkes, Renee Robinson, Broderick Wilson; program note "Researching the balance of power between the states of mind and the senses."

    Per DeFrantz (2 November 2000), Research "was apparently a medium-length piece for the AAADT (first company). We have no photos and I found no reviews easily. But the dates might help if you want to dig some more. It wasn't kept in the repertory after its first season."

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

    • Dunning, Jennifer. 1993. "Gary DeLoatch, Leading Dancer with Ailey Troupe, is Dead at 40." New York Times (6 April).
         		 
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