Dancer, Teacher, Choreographer, Mentor... Legend. A National Treasure dubbed 'The Tom Brady of Dance' by The New York Times adds life to Spring Dance at CSU!

You might know that Cleveland State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance presents its annual CSU Spring Dance Concert this weekend (Friday, March 10 – Sunday, March 12) at the Allen Theatre on Playhouse Square. What you might not know, is that “The Tom Brady of Dance” is one of the dancers playing quarterback.

Dianne McIntyre is no stranger to people in the dance community. In fact, she’s widely considered a living legend in dance circles. She’s not one to talk up this fact (we’ll do that for her!) but is 100% full of heart when talking about following her passion for most of her life.

“I have been blessed to be able to express myself as a career,” said McIntyre in an interview with CSU this week. “There aren’t many things better than that, I can tell you! But then to be called the Tom Brady of your profession by The New York Times? Well, needless to say, I was tickled! People were calling me from all over the place. That’s about as good as it gets!”

Dancing from the Beginning

As a child, she studied ballet with Elaine Gibbs and modern dance with Virginia Dryansky and earned a BFA degree in dance from The Ohio State University. Her choreography went on to grace stages from Broadway to London's West End.

Her list of musical collaborators has been called “a study in vanguard jazz innovators,” and both McIntyre and her choreography can be seen in the award-winning 1998 Oprah Winfrey film, Beloved.

McIntyre has choreographed works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and gads of college dance troupes across the country.

Here in Cleveland, her work has illuminated the stage in productions at Karamu House, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Dancing Wheels and right here at CSU. One of her more recent works, Why I Dance, originated as a choreographic study with a CSU dancer.

Her adaptability is seen in her work for the stage; in her three New York Dance and Performance Awards; in her Emmy nomination and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Charitable Trust; in her 2006 Cleveland Arts Prize Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2009 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from State University of New York Purchase College, three Bessies (NY Dance), two AUDELCOs (NY Black Theatre) and a Helen Hayes Award (DC Theatre).

She recently won an award from Dance Magazine and earned the Martha Hill Dance Fund Lifetime Achievement Award as of last week. She continues to choreograph, with new works on the horizon and still dances in performance—“not quite like I did back in my 20s and 30s, mind you!” McIntyre chuckled.

“It’s really all about adapting. Modifying,” she added, confiding that the physical energy of dance is lifegiving. “You really just learn to choreograph and express yourself in new, uplifting ways.”

Cleveland Roots and Branches

McIntyre was born in Cleveland in 1946 and graduated from John Adams High School in 1964—with career and education that spanned “stops in Columbus, Milwaukee and New York City.” After receiving her BFA in Dance from OSU, she taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before moving to New York in 1970, to founding the hybrid dance/music company Sounds in Motion.

That carried on until 1988, when she decided to move in some directions that offered flexibility and creativity. She moved back to Cleveland in 2003 to care for her parents.

“So that is a brief snapshot of my journey, such as it has been,” she said with a laugh. “I came back here to Cleveland to support my family members, my parents who were up in age at that time. And you probably know this, but my sister, Dr. Donna McIntyre Whyte teaches there at Cleveland State.”

(You can listen to more about the McIntyre sisters’ parents in this Cleveland Voices historical podcast, yet another brief snapshot into what can only be described colorful life.)

Oh, and you can call Dianne “Doctor,” too—twice over!—though she warms equally to being called “Miss Dianne” by her friends, cohorts, colleagues and mentees. To wit, McIntyre was bestowed with honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) degrees from SUNY Purchase in 2009 and (wait for it...) CSU in 2013.

“I came to find that Lynn Deering [CSU professor, former Director of the CSU Dance Program and Artistic Director of the CSU Dance Company] nominated me for that,” McIntyre recalled, beaming. “I have a close feeling in my heart for the dance program there at Cleveland State. So many wonderful people there, doing such expressly creative and moving works. It is a contagious energy to be a part of.”

What to Expect This Weekend at the Spring Dance Concerts

While complete rundown of what audiences can expect this weekend can be found here, along with a link for tickets, McIntyre will be restaging The Call of Mrs. Hamer, which will be choreographed on CSU alum/faculty member/Interim Director of Dance, DeAndra Stone, “voiced” through Fannie Lou Hamer—voting- and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and prominent civil rights leader.

“[She] was a courageous activist during the U.S. civil rights era of the 1960s,” McIntyre said. Hamer often sang Black church hymns to “bolster the determination, fearlessness and enthusiasm” of the group. “The dancer [in the piece] is not a representation of the singer’s life,” McIntyre clarified.

“Rather, the choreography and the dancer express the longings, fortitude and struggles streaming from the music. The dance also presents elements to add to the voice of Mrs. Hamer— the unspoken part that lies in the soul of the individuals, then and now... the unspoken that can be heard beneath the words and inside the dance.”

Learn more about the weekend concerts by visiting the CSUOhio.edu Spring Dance Concerts 2023 link.