Born in July 6th 1930 in New York City, Donald McKayle first gained an intense interest and admiration in dance more than half a century ago after a friend brought him to see Pearl Primus, a pioneer in African-American dance. A first-generation American and the son of Jamaican parents, McKayle grew up in Harlem. The McKayle family were part of the New York West Indian community which offered social interaction and cultural awareness to a young boy. McKayle first danced in public at a West Indian social activity.

In 1947 Donald McKayle graduated from De Witt Clinton High School. While in high school, he showed a passion for both folk music and American and African-American history. McKayle belonged to a high school chapter of the Frederick Douglass Society and a youth group called Club L'Ouverture which held folk dances and "sings," and on weekends he went to hootenannies and danced Latin at the Grand Plaza. His choreography later drew from these early experiences and interests. McKayle received a scholarship to the New Dance Group. From 1947 to 1949 he attended City College of New Y

As Donald McKayle gained a solid reputation in the concert dance world as a choreographer, influential people in other theatrical realms took notice. The acclaim of his "jazz ballet" in pieces such as District Storyville drew the attention of Broadway producer Hillard Elkins, who asked McKayle to choreograph the dance sequences in his production of Golden Boy, starring Sammy Davis, Jr.. Elkins was successful in enticing McKayle to choreography for Broadway, where Golden Boy premiered in 1964. The production was a success and McKayle earned a Tony nomination for his choreography, thus beginning another aspect of his career. In earlier years, McKayle had danced on Broadway in Bless You All, House of Flowers, and West Side Story, and he had directed and choreographed musical theatre off Broadway.

Donald McKayle conceived the Tony-nominated Broadway hit Sophisticated Ladies based on the life and writings of Duke Ellington. The show was originally titled "Duke," but was later given the "sexier" title Sophisticated Ladies before the show opened. Sophisticated Ladies premiered on Broadway in 1981 and starred Gregory Hines and Judith Jamison, who later became the director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. McKayle's original concept and staging of musical numbers had undergone a plethora of changes, but the "choreo-musical" that he conceived in 1978 received numerous Tony nominations. He won the NAACP Image Award for writing and an Outer Critics Circle Award for choreography in 1981.

He later direct

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