the
prodigy of
Erick Hawkins
Katherine Duke began studying
with Erick Hawkins in 1983. She
made her professional debut with
the Erick Hawkins Dance
Company in 1986 at Lincoln
Center. Ms. Duke’s mercurial
grace, purity of presence, and
focused phrasing, as noted by
Anna Kisselgoff of the New
York Times, brought her critical
acclaim. She became a teacher
at the Erick Hawkins School
and taught composition
for Lucia Dlugoszewski.
Ms. Duke performed as a
principle dancer with the
Hawkins Company until
1991. In 1995, Ms. Duke
returned to the Hawkins
Company as a guest artist
and teacher. At that time she
assisted Dlugoszewski in setting
Hawkins’ Journey of a Poet for
Mikhail Baryshnikov. She served as
rehearsal director to the Hawkins
Company in 1999 and assistant
to the choreographer in 2000.
American writer and journalist
Jamake Highwater has written,
“There is little doubt that Katherine
Duke represents the idealization of
Hawkins’s four decades of creating
dance.”
Ms. Duke became the artistic
director of the Erick Hawkins
Dance Foundation in 2001. As
artistic director she produced a
spectacular concert of the Erick
Hawkins Dance Company at
Florence Gould Hall in New York
honoring long time collaborator
72
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Ralph Dorazio in 2003. The
Company performed in Broadway
Cares’ remember project from
2001 through 2004. A New York
season at Lincoln Center, Why is
the Cherry Red, showcased nine
of Hawkins’ classic pieces and
premiered Fountain in the Middle
Of the Room and Elusive Pierce
in 2005. Sheen of Water
Dreamed was premiered
at Wooster Arts Space in
New York. The Company
performed at the Manhattan
School of Music in 2005 and
2006 and just recently this
April of 2016
with Erick
Hawkins
Dance
Company’s
music director
David Taylor.
of Hawkins’ works at Marymount
College, New York, the University of
Las Vegas, Nevada, the University
of Richmond, Virginia, Sharing the
Legacy Projects at Hunter College,
New York, the Governor’s School
for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia,
Case Western Reserve in Cleveland,
Ohio, and Texas State University in
San Marcos, Texas as well as dance
companies in Kalamazoo, Michigan,
Norfolk, Virginia, St. Louis,
Missouri, Santa Barbara, California,
and Austin, Texas.
In an
effort to preserve
and perpetuate
the musical,
compositional,
and choreographic
legacies of both
Dlugoszewski and
Hawkins Ms. Duke
facilitates the
reconstruction of
classic repertory
for universities
and professional
companies. Ms.
Duke set Hawkins’
Early Floating
on Mikhail
Baryshnikov’s
White Oak Dance
Project in 2002.
She has coordinated
the production
New legends magazine