Marie Bryant

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Marie Bryant
Portrait from Los Angeles Herald Examiner 1944
Born(1919-11-06)November 6, 1919
Meridian, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedMay 23, 1978(1978-05-23) (aged 58)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Dancer
  • singer
  • choreographer
Years active1934–1978
Spouse
John A. Rajakumar
​
​
(m. 1952; died 1965)​

Marie Bryant (November 6, 1919 – May 23, 1978) was an American dancer, singer and choreographer, described as "one of the most vivacious black dancers in the United States".[1]

Biography

Bryant was born in

Grand Terrace Cafe in Chicago in 1934, and became a regular singer and dancer in the venue's floor shows. She then performed in Los Angeles with Lionel Hampton, and at the Cotton Club in New York City with Duke Ellington.[1]

By 1939, she was a featured attraction at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and toured nationally with Duke Ellington. In Los Angeles, she performed in Ellington's 1941 musical revue Jump For Joy, featuring the hit number "Bli Blip". She also appeared as the head of a dance troupe in the movie Carolina Blues (1944), and sang in the short film Jammin' the Blues (also 1944), accompanied by Lester Young, Barney Kessel and others.[2] In 1946, she starred in the musical show Beggar's Holiday, with music by Ellington and lyrics by John LaTouche.[1]

She worked as a teacher at the dance schools run by

MGM and Columbia, and developed her own dance teaching style which she called "controlled release".[1]

Bryant continued to appear in musical shows into the early 1950s. In 1952, she toured with the Harlem Blackbirds, and married the company manager John A. Rajakumar.

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[4] She returned to the US after Rajakumar became ill; he died in 1965.[1]

In the 1970s, she ran the Marie Bryant Dance Studios, and was an understudy to Pearl Bailey in the stage show Hello, Dolly!. Bryant continued to work as a choreographer in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

She died of cancer in Los Angeles in 1978, at the age of 58.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0810391772
    .
  2. All Media Network
    . Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  3. ISSN 0021-5996
    .
  4. ^ "Marie Bryant's Song Riles South African Minister; British Censors Laugh It Off". The Afro-American. June 13, 1953. p. 6.
  5. ^ "When Strangers Marry (1944) | Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.

External links

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