“He performed with modern-dance pioneers Martha Graham and José Limón while still in his teens. At 21, he formed his own dance company, whose members included such renowned figures as Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell and Eliot Feld. [He] also choreographed several early works that have become acknowledged as modern-dance classics.” In 1974 he directed and choreographed Raisin, a musical adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, for which he received two Tony nominations; he received further nominations for choreography for Doctor Jazz (1975) and Sophisticated Ladies (1981).