Nat Horne

Nathaniel Augustus Horne (born December 20, 1929) is an American dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and dance educator. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he graduated from Virginia Union University in 1951 with a degree in mathematics. Against the wishes of his father, a Baptist minister, he pursued a career as a dancer, initially working as both a dancer and choreographer in the Eighth Army division of the Special Services branch in Europe from 1952 to 1954. Upon returning to the United States he moved to New York City where he trained as a dancer under Matt Mattox, among others. He danced with Aubrey Hitchens's Negro Dance Theatre prior to having a distinguished career on Broadway as a dancer in musicals from 1957 to 1970. He was an original member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and performed in the world premieres of several of Ailey's early works, among them the seminal modern dance work Revelations.

Horne mainly retired from performance after 1970, re-orienting his career towards choreography and teaching. He was a long-time teacher of jazz dance at the Ailey School, joining the faculty in 1971. He began his shift toward choreographic work in 1963 at the Jones Beach Theatre, and then worked in Germany as a choreographer for several musical production in the 1960s. In 1969 he formed an artistic partnership with the director Albert Reyes with whom he worked on several musicals in regional theatre and stock theatre as a choreographer into the mid-1970s. In 1973 Reyes and Horne began teaching theatre workshops with an emphasis on training dancers to act and sing as well as move. The success of these workshops led the men to found the Nat Horne Musical Theatre and School (NHMTS) in Theatre Row on 42nd Street in 1975. The school portion of the NHMTS trained many Broadway performers during its eleven-year existence. The NHMTS also operated the Off-Off Broadway Nat Horne Theatre which remained active after the school closed. It was still operational as late as 1994.

After Reyes's death in 1992, Horne formed a close working relationship with the conductor, composer, and tenor David Dusing who had worked for Horne at the NHMTS as a voice teacher. Together the two men co-directed annual musicals for Muse Machine at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton, Ohio, from 1992 to 2010. As of 2024, Horne resides in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, where he has lived for more than 60 years.

Early life and education Nathaniel "Nat" Horne was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 20, 1929. He was the third son of five born to Reverend Jacob Jesse Earl Horne His father was a Baptist minister His brother J. Robinson Horne became a playwright of religious stage works, a theater critic, and director. Robinson and Nat had a very close relationship, and the two brothers shared an enthusiasm for dance and musical theatre. In their youth the two brothers would often try to recreate dances together that they saw in films. He was eventually caught by his father while rehearsing for a stage adaptation of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast at the local YMCA, a work directed by Carter, who was the wife of pastor and politician Matthew G. Carter. Most of Horne's training under Carter was concentrated on the execution of dance lifts as a partner to the female students in her studio, and it was not until his time in New York that he received a more thorough grounding in dance technique. where one of his fellow students was future governor of Virginia Douglas Wilder. While a student there he danced in school productions, and continued to do the same while a student at Virginia Union University (VUU). Many of the shows he appeared in at VUU were created by his brother, Robinson, He was originally destined for the officer candidate school because of his background as a college graduate. However, he wanted to be assigned to the Special Services (SS) branch in order to pursue his ambitions to become a dancer. He succeeded in obtaining a recommendation letter for this branch after performing at an officer's club in Richmond which he presented to a sympathetic commanding officer at his assigned post in Germany. That officer had him audition for the head of the United Service Organizations who in turn sent a letter to the head of the SS branch in Stuttgart where he was ultimately assigned. He spent his war service working as both a dancer and choreographer of shows for the SS, crafting jazz, African, and Cuban dance works for touring productions.

Horne originally worked as an order clerk in New York while taking dance lessons; during this time he predominantly lived off of oatmeal. He studied with Mattox from 1956 to 1964,

In 1956 Horne portrayed the gambler "Balloon Cheeks" in the 1956 New York City Center revival of Carmen Jones with Muriel Smith in the title role. After the close of the New York run he toured with the production to Washington, D.C.'s Carter Barron Amphitheatre. When that show temporarily closed in the summer of 1958 he toured to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the Walter Nicks Ballet Company. performing the work at its premiere on March 30, 1958. Another early Ailey dance he was featured in was "Canto al Diablo" (1960). The following May he performed with the company in that work at the Apollo Theater. In 1962 he performed as a principal dancer in the world premieres of Ailey's "Been Here and Gone" (January 26, 1962) and "Creation of the World" (September 9, 1962),

Horne worked regularly on Broadway as dancer for thirteen years. Finian's Rainbow (1960, New York City Center), Show Boat (1961, New York City Center), Sophie (1963, Winter Garden Theatre), What Makes Sammy Run? (1964, 54th Street Theatre), He also portrayed the parts of the Ambassador in I'm Solomon (1968, Mark Hellinger Theatre), Panayotis in Zorba (1968–1969, Imperial Theatre), Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! (1969), and one of the musicians in Applause (1970, Palace Theatre).

Horne also worked in regional theatre. In 1961 he created the role of Teo in the premiere of A. E. Hotchner's A Short Happy Life at the Moore Theatre in Seattle; a production which starred Nan Martin and which toured to Los Angeles. In 1968 he performed in South Pacific at the Jones Beach Theatre (JBT) with Kathleen Nolan as Nellie and Jerome Hines as Emile. He had earlier worked as a dancer in the JBT production of Paradise Island (1961 and 1962).

Horne was a dancer in the 1960 television special Belafonte, New York 19, a tribute to Manhattan starring Harry Belafonte. He also appeared on television that year as a dancer in a filmed lecture given by choreographer Matt Mattox. His other television credits in the 1960s included performances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. In 1964 he choreographed a production of the musical Girl Crazy which was staged in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Horne had a longtime collaborative partnership with playwright and director Albert Reyes. Horne, without Reyes returning as director, choreographed the VMT's 1975 production of Guys and Dolls.

By 1965 Horne was teaching dance in New York City on the staff of the Clark Center for the Performing Arts. By 1971 he had joined the faculty of the New American Dance Center (better known as the Ailey School), teaching classes in jazz dance.

Nat Horne Musical Theatre and School In 1975 Horne and Reyes co-founded the Nat Horne Musical Theatre and School (NHMTS). The origins of this organization dated to two years earlier when Reyes and Horne began offering theatre workshop classes together. The school portion of this institution trained dancers for professional employment in the field of musical theatre; offering not only dance classes but also acting and music lessons. By 1980 the school had an enrollment of 250 students. Located in Theatre Row at 440 W. 42nd Street, the school operated for 11 years.

Horne served as artistic director of the NHT with Reyes holding the post of executive producer of the theatre. Shows staged at the theatre included Hugh Wheeler's Look, We've Come Through! (1976), Ken Campbell's The Great Caper (1976), Allen Deitch's version of The Late Late Show (1976, also directed by Horne), D. H. Lawrence's The Fight for Barbara (1978), Paul Zindel's Let Me Hear You Whisper (1982), Anthony P. Curry's Divine Hysteria (1982), Stephen Levi's Getting Mama Married (1983), Jane Nixon Willis's SLAM! (1983), Peter Samelson's The Magician (1986), John Thorburn Hall's DASH (1988), and Paul Dick's Once/Twice (1990) among others. The theatre was active as late as 1994 when it staged Le Wilhelm's A Malice in the Wood.

In March 1981 Horne was honored at a special event at the Virginia Center for the Performing Arts entitled "Nat Horne Comes Home" which featured local professional performing groups and university music and dance ensembles performing works with which he was associated in the first half of the program. The second half included excerpts from NHMTS's professional company (Dancing Plus) production of David Dusing and Glen Vecchione musical The Legend of Frankie and Johnny, which Horne choreographed. Dusing, a classical tenor and composer, taught voice on the faculty of the NHMTS. It toured the United States after its New York run.

The NHT, along with the New Elgin Theatre, was the venue used by the Black American Film Festival, founded by Carl Offord in 1977. In 1980 the NHT was used as the venue for the International Directors Festival.

Later career After the closing of the NHMTS, Horne remained active as a teacher of dance workshops at universities and conferences both in the United States and internationally. He presented master classes in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Corsica, Japan, and Israel. Together the two men were the artistic force behind annual musicals staged by Muse Machine at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton, Ohio. Musicals they co-staged together with Horne also choreographing and Dusing also serving as music director included Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (1992), Oliver! (1993), Moose Charlap and Jule Styne's Peter Pan (1994 and 2008), The Music Man (1995), The Wizard of Oz (1996), Me and My Girl (1997 and 2009), Mame (1998), Damn Yankees (1999) My Favorite Year (2000) My Fair Lady (2001), Guys and Dolls (2003), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (2004), On the Town (2005), Beauty and the Beast (2006), Thoroughly Modern Millie (2007), and Singin' in the Rain (2010).

Personal life Horne's father died in 1957, and his mother died in 1973. As of 2024 he resides in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, where he has lived for more than 60 years.