Jean-Leon Destine, father of Haitian professional dance, is born at Saint-Marc

Jean-Leon Destine was born at Saint-Marc on 26 March 1918. In the early 1940s he left for the United States with Lina Mathon-Blanchet’s company and stayed, studying at Howard University. He danced with Katherine Dunham’s company and built his own name through the 1940s, putting Haiti’s fight against slavery and colonial rule on concert stages abroad. Late in that decade he founded a national dance company back home. He is called the father of Haitian professional dance. He died on 22 January 2013.