Hailed as Donald McKayle’s masterpiece, this powerfully athletic piece portrays the life of men on a prison chain gang. The memories of love and joy that sustain them are personified by a dream figure who appears as sweetheart, mother and wife. By turns lyrical and muscular, McKayle’s sharply theatrical choreography explores the characters’ physical trials and emotional despair with equal intensity. “It is clear why Rainbow [Round My Shoulder] has survived, in its own quiet way, as a classic of American modern dance,” praised The New York Times.