Ida Forsyne

Ida Forsyne (January 1, 1883 – August 19, 1983), sometimes seen as Ida Forcen, was an African-American vaudeville dancer who toured in Europe and Russia before World War I.

Early life

Ida Forsyne was born on South Side, Chicago, Illinois in 1883, and raised by her mother.[1] She left home at 14 to join a dance troupe, "The Black Bostonians."[2]

Career

In 1898, at age 15, Forsyne joined Sissieretta Jones in Black Patti's Troubadours, as a dancer. She was part of the Smart Set Company in 1902, in the cast of Darktown's Circus Day in 1903,[3] and by 1904 had a solo act in The Southerners, the first interracial musical show, headed by Will Marion Cook. In 1906, she was featured with the Tennessee Students, and with them toured Europe, sometimes billed as "Topsy." An energetic version of the kazatsky dance was her specialty, which she developed during a run in Moscow. "I stole all the steps I could. I liked Russian dancing so much as I wanted to be different than most colored performers," she recalled.[4] She stayed abroad until just before World War I in 1914.[2] Langston Hughes considered her one of the dozen best dancers in Harlem.[5]

By the time she was back in the United States, she was in her thirties, and found it difficult to gain dance jobs. In addition to age, she believed her darker skintone was a barrier to employment, even in all-black shows.[6] She became maid to Sophie Tucker in the 1920s,[7] but soon joined Tucker's act as a dancer.[8] She traveled with Mamie Smith in 1924, Dusty Fletcher in 1925, and Bessie Smith in 1928.

After 1930, Forsyne worked as a domestic servant and elevator operator. She did appear in a few films, including an Oscar Micheaux movie in 1935, and the 1936 film, The Green Pastures. In 1951, she consulted on old-style "cakewalk" choreography for the New York City Ballet.[5] There was a birthday tribute event to Ida Forsyne in 1955, which allowed her to show off her dance skills in her seventies.[9] In the 1960s, Forsyne was interviewed by oral historians of dance, Marshall Stearns and Jean Stearns.[6]

Personal life

Her cousin Ollie Burgoyne was also a dancer in vaudeville shows and on Broadway, who also toured extensively overseas. They appeared together in a 1919 show, They're Off. [10] Forsyne was active with the Negro Actors Guild in her later years.[11][12]

Ida Forsyne died at age 100, in a nursing home in Brooklyn, New York.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Martha Effinger-Crichlow, Staging Migrations toward an American West: From Ida B. Wells to Rhodessa Jones (University Press of Colorado 2014): 94-96. ISBN 9781492012610
  2. 1 2 "Ida Forsyne" in Vaudeville Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performances in America, Volume 1 (Psychology Press ): 396-397. ISBN 9780415938532
  3. ↑ Bernard L. Peterson Jr., ed., A Century of Musicals in Black and White: An Encyclopedia of Musical Stage Works By, About, or Involving African Americans (ABC-CLIO 1993): 102-103. ISBN 9780313064548
  4. ↑ Jayna Brown, "From the Point of View of the Pavement: A Geopolitics of Black Dance" in Nichole T. Rustin and Sherrie Tucker eds., Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies (Duke University Press 2010): 159. ISBN 9780822389224
  5. 1 2 Paul Scolieri, "Ida Forsyne" in Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman, eds., Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Routledge 2012): 971-973. ISBN 9781135455361
  6. 1 2 Marshall Winslow Stearns and Jean Stearns, Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance (DaCapo Press 1968): 250-257. ISBN 9780306805530
  7. ↑ Jayna Brown, Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern (Duke University Press 2009): 213. ISBN 9780822390695
  8. ↑ Lori Harrison-Kahan, The White Negress: Literature, Minstrelsy, and the Black-Jewish Imaginary (Rutgers University Press 2011): 35. ISBN 9780813547824
  9. ↑ "All Show Business Pays Tribute as Ida Forsyne Marks 72 Year" New York Age (January 15, 1955): 12. via Newspapers.com
  10. ↑ John O. Perpener, African-American Concert Dance: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond (University of Illinois Press 2001): 73-75. ISBN 9780252026751
  11. ↑ "Negro Actors Guild's Annual Pre-Lenten Ball Largely Attended" New York Age (March 13, 1943): 4. via Newspapers.com
  12. ↑ John H. Brown, "Negro Actors Guild Felt Need, And Went to Rescue" New York Age (October 29, 1949): 55. via Newspapers.com
  13. ↑ Jessie Carney Smith, "Ida Forsyne" in Lean'tin L. Bracks and Jessie Carney Smith, eds., Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 82. ISBN 9780810885431

External links

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