Eleanor King

Eleanor King
Dancing in her self-choreographed work "Hornpipe" in 1935. Photography by Barbara Morgan
Born	(1906-02-08)February 8, 1906 Middletown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	February 27, 1991(1991-02-27) (aged 85) Haddonfield, New Jersey, U.S.
Other names	Eleanor Campbell King
Occupation	Modern dancer, choreographer, professor
Years active	1927–1991
Website	http://www.ccdr.org

Eleanor Campbell King (1906–1991) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, and educator. She was a member of the original Humphrey-Weidman company, where she was a principal dancer in the pioneering modern dance movement in New York City, then moving on to choreography and founding her own dance company in Seattle, Washington. She was a professor emerita at the University of Arkansas, where she taught from 1952 to 1971, before retiring to Santa Fe, New Mexico to start a new course of study into classical Japanese and Korean dance. She choreographed over 120 dance works, and wrote extensively for a variety of dance publications. In 1948, she was named Woman of the Year in Seattle, and in 1986 was listed as a "Santa Fe Living Treasure", also receiving the New Mexico Governor's Artist Award. In 2000, her archive was recognized by the White House Millennium Council's "Save America's Treasures" program.

King was born on February 8, 1906 in Middletown, Pennsylvania to George Ilgenfritz and Emma Kate Campbell King. She was the third of six children: Marion, George, Eleanor, Lucile, Robert and John. She attended Clare Tree Major School of the Theatre in 1925, and Theatre Guild School in 1926, studying dance with Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. Humphrey and Weidman had been involved with the pioneering Denishawn School in New York City, and then split off to form their own Humphrey-Weidman dance company. King began taking classes from them, and was then invited to be a part of the new dance company. She made her 1928 debut in Color Harmony, considered the first American abstract ballet. In 1930, she appeared in Leonide Massine's Sacre du Printemps at the Metropolitan Opera House. She stayed with the company until 1935, when she began soloing and choreographing. In 1937 she was a co-founder of the Theater Dance Company, and her first major work, Icaro, was produced in 1938. She became known for choreography based on works of literature, from Petrarch to James Joyce.