To Dance To Dream

Moonwalk Through the Years

2011-07-30T13:36:00.002-06:00

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDUvwlrbYjM&feature=related

Verve

2011-05-01T21:01:00.000-06:00

A nice little post over at Woodlands Home has me looking at this airborne photo in a new light. Is the female of the duet in the apex of a jump or nearing the conclusion of an assemble? Ahhhh, I love thinking in motion!

"This particular company, for the moment at least, call the Northern School of Contemporary Dance their home and Verve is the name given to the graduate company staffed out with some of the best dancers from the previous graduating year."

The opening duet is a great study in the movement text of Laban Movement Analysis.

Most all college trained dancers throughout the world have been exposed to this language for describing and crafting dance material. Words like dab, wring and flick are part and parcel of a conversation in a dance composition class. The language, though it is translated into many languages, I'm sure, is not the finite language of ballet. There is no step label necessarily given; instead dancemakers today may refer to a phrase or a section of movement with any recognizable to them made up label, but then they get down to this more common language from Laban. The note from the choreographer may be, "the movement needs to be more indirect" or “this is a dab, not a flick; it's press, not wring at this moment".

Seeing dance, one might wonder how the dancers remember the movement and how or where it came from, and once there, how is it crafted into what we see. The process is one of experiment, extruding and winnowing, and it has its own language. Release is not relax; textures are created, intimacies described and reworked. That punch or that sinking you might feel in your gut when you watch dance has been carefully crafted to elicit that response and the language has moved on from tendu and entrechat.

This is part of the reason I am well prepared to see ballet relegated to museum status. The language of ballet, though it is often where we begin, is old and outdated -- historic. I think we don't speak that language anymore--that 18th, 19th century movement language. Think about it; when you go to see the ballet, you have to have read the story and even then it may be difficult for a "civilian" to follow. The system requires dancers to begin their careers instead of having an extended education on dancemaking (usually college programs), so they are not trained and instead string together steps and movements seen in other work struggling to get to something interesting without a lexicon of movement passionately access from within their own movement libraries and with little language to use to craft what they have produced. The permutations on what is in the ballet lexicon may have reached its end.

So OK, let us continue to see great touring productions of Swan Lake from time to time, just as we still love to hear Mozart, but let us also stop trying to make "new ballets" and get on with what has been modern for almost a century. Today's innovators have accessed a wider lexicon and updated how they convey concepts that reflect our world, not a fairy world or a world of courts and royalty. We don't live there anymore. It is interesting from a historical aspect, but the artists of today need our support, and we need to experience what they have to express about our world. Let's move on; it's time. These beautiful student dancers from the UK have moved on. Can we catch up to them?

Hat tip to: Susan Miller's blog

Tigger Benford

2010-07-15T06:25:00.000-06:00

Tigger Benford was one of the most influential artists I have ever met. His classes and subsequent choreography utilized body percussion and . . . . . how do I describe it . . . . . . math!

The result of the collaborative effort was fresh and complex but so precise that it communicated layers of simplicity woven into magical patterns. The kinestetic response to his music and rhythms is something that inspire me to this day!

Partial Quotes from the "PERSONAL STATEMENT OF THE ARTIST," Tigger Benford.

The full quote may be found HERE -- and I most adamantly encourage you to check it out and read more about Tigger.

His CDs are also available at this site. They are AMAZING!

Here are the partial quotes:

"Playing for dance is important to me. What I value about it most is that seeing movement helps me create music, and it is necessary for me to create music to live life with a sense of satisfaction and meaning. In turn, the music I play seems to be inspiring for those who use it for movement, and this is gratifying as well, to know that my music has found a useful place in the world.

My interest is in generating certain responses in listeners. If I got the wrong response it's the wrong piece. The meaning and nature of the piece exist in the world as a set of responses, not as some absolute artistic entity in my own mind.

I believe that art and artists exist to fulfill an evolutionary design. Their consistent presence throughout history in culture after culture cannot be explained by politics or by economics.

People need a special place and time to escape temporarily from the circle of their own lives, which are often filled with pain and drudgery. Art and entertainment which do not have the power to transport the audience have no business being on the stage.

As a consumer I value both art and entertainment. For me what distinguishes the one from the other is art gives me insights I can bring back into my life, helping me to lead it in a richer and clearer way. Personally I hope both to entertain people, and to help them get more out of their lives in some mysterious way. "

Fred & Ginger

2010-06-02T23:16:00.000-06:00

Funny Dance Quotes

2010-01-15T00:57:00.002-06:00

“Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little.”
(Evaluation of Fred Astaire's very first screen test)

Toe dancing is a dandy attention getter, second only to screaming.
Agnes deMille

"No touching!"
Anonymous ballroom couple overheard saying this while practicing for Standard (where you have to maintain body contact the entire time)

"Gentlemen, remember the 15 second rule. When the music stops, you have 15 seconds to escort your partner back to her seat. If you're too slow, the music will start again and you'll be stuck for another dance."
Anonymous dance teacher addressing the class

A good dancer has the posture that can say 'I have presence, and you are dirt'; especially when they forget to smile.
Author Unknown

About balance: Cranes stand on one leg, but cannot dance a step.
Author Unknown

A man who dances has his choice of romances.
Author Unknown

Beginning dancer: knows nothing. Intermediate dancer: knows everything; too good to dance with beginners. Hotshot dancer: too good to dance with anyone. Advanced dancer: dances everything… especially with beginners.
Author Unknown

Dancers and musicians have always counted music differently. There is a cute anecdote about Stravinsky yelling at Nijinsky, "There is no 27 in my music!"
Author Unknown

He: "Can I have the last dance with you?" She: "You are having it!"
Author Unknown

If dancing were any easier it would be called football.
Author Unknown

It's not the turning that’s hard in pirouettes, it's that you gotta keep on doin' it.
Author Unknown

Lesser dancers stumble; better dancers syncopate.
Author Unknown

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels!
Author Unknown

The Ballet toe shoe is one of the few instruments of torture to survive intact into our time.
Author Unknown

What if doing the hokey pokey IS what it is all about?
Author Unknown

You can't make a pointe if you don't understand the details.
Author Unknown

The forms of tango are like stages of a marriage. The American tango is like the beginning of a love affair, when you're both very romantic and on your best behavior. The Argentine tango is when you're in the heat of things and all kinds of emotions are flying: passion, anger, humor. The International tango is like the end of the marriage, when you're staying together for the sake of the children.
Barbara Garvey

I grew up with six brothers. That's how I learned to dance - waiting for the bathroom.
Bob Hope

If their feet aren't in the right place, at least their hearts are.
Christian M. Chensvold (on novice swingers)

Dancing is a wonderful training for girls. It's the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it.
Christopher Morley

Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.
Confucius

Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy and you've got an audience.
Diogenes

I just put my feet on the ground and move them around.
Fred Astaire

About a year ago I took up line dancing. I got so into it I had to join a Self help group to stop. It's a TWO STEP program.
Frederick J. Boenig

I got started dancing because I knew that was one way to meet girls.
Gene Kelly

Part of the joy of dancing is conversation. Trouble is, some men can't talk and dance at the same time.
Ginger Rogers

Carpe Dancem (seize the dance)
Heather Diadoti

To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
Jack Handey

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
Japanese Proverb

No move is too tricky; no spin too excessive… for my partner.
John Hayes

Ballroom Dancing just gets more exciting the more you know about it, which is why you have to do well at school so you can spend the rest of your life supporting your habit!
Kay Teague

Some people march to a different drummer... and some people Polka.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate

There are only two places where indiscriminate hugging is tolerated; the brothel and the ballroom.
M.A. Ham

Dancing is like a shower: one wrong turn and you're in hot water!
Mad Magazine

Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance.
Mr. Miyagi

I was a ballerina. I had to quit after I injured a groin muscle. It wasn't mine.
Rita Rudner

Draw a crazy picture
Write a nutty poem
Sing a mumble-gumble song
Whistle through your comb
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before
Shel Silverstien

Football isn't a contact sport; it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.
Vince Lombardi

The girl who can't dance says the band can't play.
Yiddish Proverb

My feet are dogs.
More funny Rudolf Nureyev quotes

The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.
More funny James Brown quotes

Dancing is a sweat job.
More funny Fred Astaire quotes
A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head.
More funny Agnes de Mille quotes
Ballet: Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are.
More funny Robin Williams quotes

I'm not a ballerina. I'm a hoofer.
More funny Leslie Caron quotes
I felt that I didn't want to be in show business anymore. I felt that I wanted to be a farmer. I was milking cows and shoveling terrible stuff and working all day. By the end of the day, all I wanted was my tap shoes - I thought, 'What am I doing? I better get back where I belong on the stage where we work at night and can sleep late!
More funny Gregory Hines quotes
Modern dancing is old fashioned.
More funny Samuel Goldwyn quotes
I told some school chums I could dance as good as Fred Astaire. And they asked me, if I was that great, why didn't I get into a show? I said I would, so I got myself a job in a show and here I am.
More funny June Allyson quotes

Some Wonderful Life Magazine Finds

2010-01-11T00:31:00.002-06:00

Fred Astaire and son 1940

Veloz and Yolanda 1939

Ballerina w/ shadow1944

Ballerina 1938

Lindy Hop 1942

This is Krumping

2009-12-29T16:26:00.000-06:00

Blue Lapis Light -- Requiem

2009-08-24T22:57:00.002-06:00

Ballet Solo

2009-08-23T21:26:00.000-06:00

White Knights MB/GH duet

2008-04-09T15:46:00.001-06:00

Head Over Heels

2008-03-14T23:12:00.004-06:00

Peggy @ Sam

Rx

2008-03-14T17:45:00.000-06:00

Anaheim Ballet

2008-03-04T22:50:00.001-06:00

Tis a Gift to be Simple

2008-03-04T21:13:00.008-06:00

The Shakers were surely the oddest and most compelling of early American religious movements. They were a late-18th-century offshoot from the Quakers. They took root in America during the Revolution. And they held some fascinating beliefs.

God was both father and mother. The second coming was imminent, and Christ would come as a woman. Out of a belief in song and dance they created wonderful music. They practiced a communal life. Finally, they believed in total sexual abstinence.

Still, the Shakers had a fine creative cutting edge. An 1859 book of doctrine begins with lines from the Apocrypha: "O my soul, swallow down understanding, and devour wisdom ..." They did just that. They mixed simplicity and industry with wonderful creative openness. Invention flowed from that mix.

For example, the buzz-saw appears to have been a Shaker invention. Half the motion of regular saw is wasted. You don't cut on the backstroke. We're told about Sister Tabitha who had a vision. She saw the action of a saw merge with that of a spinning wheel. She realized she could make the sawing motion continuous by forming the saw into a rotating disc.

Maybe Tabitha's vision is myth -- maybe not. But wonderful things certainly did flow from Shaker vision. At first they avoided patents as a worldly pursuit. But the outside world made good use of their ingenuity. The familiar flat broom we all use is a Shaker invention. So are the clothespin and the apple corer.

The Shakers finally did join the patent process with every kind of machine for weaving cloth, shaping wood, and preparing food. Still, it's not Shaker devices that take our breath away. It is Shaker design.

Their furniture and architecture have such elegance and simple beauty. They have a cool, lean, soul-settling grace that rises within a life where there is no worldly future.

Yet that's why the Shakers perished. You might think celibacy killed them off. But it didn't. The Shakers lasted over a century by simply taking new people in. Celibacy was one more simplification that many people found attractive.

No, the modern world broke through in the Civil War. Their towns lay in the way of plundering armies. The War drew men off to fight, and they didn't come back. The Shakers' static agrarian ways stopped attracting people from mainstream America. Only orphans and the old came to them.

So they faded away. But they left a lingering legacy of design -- a simple gift of grace and balance. And that gift still haunts us -- long after they've gone.

source: Engines of Our Ingenuity

What does this have to do with dance, you ask?

Are you familiar with Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring? Does this (I hope) remind you of Martha Graham? It is probably the most well known section of a composition is based on the Shaker melody 'Tis a Gift to be Simple, a tune also known today as Lord of the Dance.

Martha Graham (1894-1991) and
Erick Hawkins (1901-1994) in
premiere of Appalachian Spring, October 30, 1944

This photograph was taken at the first performance of Appalachian Spring in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium on the eightieth birthday of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who had commissioned a score from Aaron Copland to accompany modern dance choreography by Martha Graham. Copland, originally titling the piece "Ballet for Martha," drew on the traditional Shaker composition "Simple Gifts." Graham incorporated characteristic American gestures into her unique dance vocabulary. Together, Copland and Graham ushered an American vernacular into the fine arts.

And when discussing Shakers and dance one MUST remember Doris Humphrey. Here is an excellent look at Humphrey's impact on modern dance. The Shapes of Cha nge: Im ages of American Dance. I remember learning and performing this dance -- it was difficult and demanding. I was surprised because it was deceptively simple from an audience viewpoint!

We learned it through Laban notation. Very cool! We were blessed to be part of a generation that fully utilized that dance notation system.

<~~ This is an example of dance notation.

The Shakers, or the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, were founded by "Mother Ann Lee, a stalwart in the "Shaking Quakers" who migrated to America from England in 1774. American Shakers shared with the Quakers a devotion to simplicity in conduct and demeanor and to spiritual equality. They "acquired their nickname from their practice of whirling, trembling or shaking during religious services." The Shakers used dancing as a worship practice.

Robert Dancing

2008-02-17T20:40:00.001-06:00

Tap 101 - Basics

2008-02-02T23:10:00.000-06:00

This is a great beginners tap review!

Symbiosis

2008-02-01T01:38:00.000-06:00

Pilobolus dance company members Otis Cook and Jennifer Macavinta perform the sensuous duet "Symbiosis." Does it trace the birth of a human relationship, or the co-evolution of a pair of symbiotic species? That's left for you to decide. Gorgeous, organic choreography blurs the boundaries between the two performers, who use the body's own geometry to lift, move and combine. The music, recorded by the Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch Records, is a compilation of works: "God Music" from Black Angels by George Crumb, "Fratres" by Arvo Pärt, and "Morango ... Almost a Tango" by Thomas Oboe Lee.

http://www.ted.com

Bill Evans

2007-09-12T12:42:00.000-06:00

One of Mr. Evans’ foremost achievements has been the creation of a modern dance technique that has influenced hundreds of dancers and dance teachers throughout the world since 1976. In the past decade, this systematic approach to the training of modern dancers has been profoundly influenced by Evans’ study of Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals. This approach to teaching emphasizes total body-mind integration and allows dancers to establish:

balanced inner connectivity and outer expressivity
balanced stability and mobility
full three-dimensional access to the kinesphere
enhanced musicality and effective phrasing
healthful regenerative ways of moving that honor the body’s needs, prevent injuries and increase kinesthetic satisfaction and longevity

There is a great article about Bill (now 67) in Dance Magazine. Here are a couple of quotes:

"Bill was always interested in how the body works and how best to present that information to students," says Gregg Lizenbery, who now is director of dance at the University of Hawaii. "We had intense discussions about technique and how to develop a kinesiologically sound approach to training the body."

"There was something so expansive and lush about the dances," says one of Evans's early dancers, Debbie Poulsen (Debbie is far left in photo, Bill is far right). "Very sensual movement, but nothing was left to chance. With Bill, everything had to come from internal organs, and later, be part of a process."
Says Evans, "My immersion in [Laban Movement Analysis] allowed me to make connections with the space harmony that naturally exists in the universe, and to begin to integrate [its] language and value system in my own technique, Now, LMA flows out and into my technique seamlessly."

Don Halquist talked at the reunion about using the Laban lexicon in organizing movement. The elementary school teacher, who is finishing his Ph.D. in education, has, amazingly, never sustained a dance injury. "It gave me a firm grounding in dancing that feels effortless and organic. Bill's dancers now are similarly trained in LMA."

Critics have referred to Evans's work as "breath dancing," perhaps referring to its almost buoyant quality, or as a "loping, rangy reverie," a "crazy-legged shuffle to syncopated strutting." Others have noted his "catlike sinuosity" and long, rippling limbs.
More than sixty ballet and modern dance companies throughout the world have performed Evans's dances; his work has been supported by numerous grants, including a Guggenheim."

Isadora Duncan

2007-07-23T00:05:00.000-06:00

In 1903, Isadora Duncan gave a lecture in Berlin, titled "The Dance of the Future," which was published as a pamphlet; it became the manifesto of Modern Dance:
"... The movement of the waves, of winds, of the earth is ever in the same lasting harmony. We do not stand on the beach and inquire of the ocean what was its movement of the past and what will be its movement of the future. We realize that the movement peculiar to its nature is eternal to its nature...

The primary or fundamental movements of the new school of the dance must have within them the seeds from which will evolve all other movements, each in turn to give birth to others in unending sequence of still higher and greater expression, thoughts and ideas ...
My intention is, in due time, to found a school, to build a theatre where a hundred little girls shall be trained in my art, which they in turn will better. In this school I shall not teach the children to imitate my movements, but to make their own, I shall not force them to study certain movements, I shall help them to develop those movements which are natural to them.

There will always be movements which are the perfect expression of that individual body and that individual soul: so we must not force it to make movements which are not natural to it but which belong to a school.

The dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of that soul will have become the movement of the body. The dancer will not belong to a nation but to all humanity. She will dance not in the form of a nymph, nor fairy, nor coquette but in the form of a woman in its greatest and purest expression. She will realize the mission of woman's body and the holiness of all its parts. She will dance the changing life of nature, showing how each part is transformed into the other. From all parts of her body shall shine radiant intelligence, bringing to the world the message of the thoughts and aspirations of thousands of women. She shall dance the freedom of women ...

This is the mission of the dancer of the future...she is coming the dancer of the future: the free spirit, who will inhabit the body of new women; more glorious than any woman that has yet been; more beautiful than...all women in past centuries: The highest intelligence in the freest body!"

Meez

2007-07-17T00:19:00.001-06:00

Royal Wedding

2007-07-14T23:58:00.000-06:00

Remember "Royal Wedding" with Fred Astaire?

Although it was filmed waaaay before my time I remember watching it (and dancing along) with my Mom when I was a child.

I loved Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movies. If you are visiting this blog, I'll bet you did, too!

Here is some memorable dialogue between Annie (Astaire's love interest) and Tom (Fred Astaire):

Annie: Do you like to dance?

Tom: Yes, yes! Its hard work but its fun. What made you decide to dance?

Annie: Oh - a very silly reason!

Tom: How silly?

Annie: Well, when I was 11 I fell in love for the first time with a boy much older

Tom: 12?

Annie: No, 13! His name was Alonso. I was so happy that suddenly all I wanted to do was to dance. So, I figured that if I danced when I was happy that I should be happy if I danced.

I used to close my eyes and pretend I could dance all over the floor, walls and even the ceiling.

Tap Dogs

2007-07-01T00:08:00.001-06:00

It’s one of Australia’s biggest international success stories -- Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs!

For Perry himself, the journey of Tap Dogs began some 14 years ago, when he started to develop some of his ideas for tap dancing “with a rock n roll edge to it”.

“We workshopped some ideas,” he says, “and we ended up with about 15 or 20 minutes worth of material.
“We videotaped it, and that led to us being asked to do a filler piece for the ABC, which we ended up calling Tap Dogs. From that, Sydney Theatre Company approached us, and asked if we’d be interested in developing it into a piece for Sydney Festival. So we did that – it was about a 55-minute piece at that stage – and it just went crazy. It sold incredibly well, and we had a lot of international producers come in and started working on the show to build it up to about 80 minutes. Then we went to the Edinburgh Festival, where we attracted more international interest – and before we knew it, we were in demand. We toured around the world, and then after about 3 years, we finally made it to New York. And we’ve been going ever since.”

The worldwide demand for the show proved so strong, Perry has had to “clone” his company; so that now there are four companies running the show – two in the US (one for the East Coast and one for the West), one in the UK and the original company in Australia.
Perry says the show has evolved over the years, but the core elements are still the same. “There are still six guys; we still have that real larrakin, hard-working ocker feel about it,” he says.

Of course, after some ten years on the road, a level of maturity has crept into the Tap Dogs. “Yeah, we’re all ‘mature’ guys now I guess,” Perry admits. “We worked out that there’s collectively something like 57 years of Tap Dogs experience on stage with this group.”
The flip side of that experience, of course, is keeping the performance fresh. That’s something that, according to Perry, comes rather organically. “If the audience is with us – and they usually are – the guys will just want to go out there and perform it,” he says.
Perhaps it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, in that it’s a loud and brash show, but it gives us great confidence knowing its gone on for so long a time and toured so far and wide.

Mirror Image - Gene Kelly

2007-06-15T18:15:00.001-06:00

Pride and Prejudice's English Country Dances

2007-06-11T01:09:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder about those English Country Dances that have appeared in the two most recent adaptations of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice? (Both the 1995 BBC production (P&P1995) and the 2005 feature movie (P&P2005)

I recommend the Earthly Delights website.

For notated and recorded music to match these dances, see Peter Barnes' The Barnes Book of English Country Dance Tunes and the recordings of his band, Bare Necesities and Nicolas Broadbridge and Marjorie Fennessy's 1996 book Purcell's Dancing Master, and the recordings of Nicolas' band The Assembly Players.

Pilobolus

2007-05-27T00:17:00.000-06:00

Pilobolus began in a Dartmouth College dance class in 1971. What developed was a collaborative choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to partnering that gave the young company a non-traditional but powerful new set of skills with which to make dances. The group was immediately acclaimed for its startling mix of humor and invention.

Pilobolus has developed from this ad hoc dance collective into a unique American arts organization with three major branches of activity:

~~> Pilobolus Dance Theatre, a 7-person touring company

~~> The Pilobolus Institute, an umbrella for educational programming

~~> Pilobolus Creative Services, an administrative structure allowing coordination of creative activities with the community

Today Pilobolus is recognized as a major American dance company of international influence.

Bella Lewitsky

2007-05-21T14:33:00.000-06:00

"When I am at my best, I am the handmaiden of the art. I'm not leading it. It's leading me." Bella Lewitsky

Bella Lewitzky, a modern dancer and choreographer was originally a student of ballet, Lewitzky launched a modern dance career in 1934, when she studied under Los Angeles choreographer LesterHorton, and later became a lead dancer in the Horton Dance Group.In 1966, she formed the Lewitzky Dance Company, which became one of the leading modern dance companies in the world. In 1951, Lewitzky was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee to answer questions about possible Communist activities in the art world. In 1990, Lewitzky crossed out the anti-obscenity clause before accepting a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She later successfully sued to accept the NEA grant.

"Great control of every motion and placement," she said, "is a kind of self-care. It's self-love in the best sense. I make a contract with the dancers (not literally, of course) to keep them alive and well and progressive-doing level best to see that they're not injured." One must bear in mind, she said, that "dancing is not normal, that only a strong, knowledgeable body can protect against damage."
Bella Lewitzky, from an interview w/ Donna Perlmutter, Dance Magazine, January 1997"

Bella was born on January 13, 1916 and died on July 16, 2004. She will always be remembered asa wonderful modern dancer, choreographer and noted teacher.
Born to Russian immigrants, Lewitzky spent her childhood in a utopian socialist colony in the Mojave Desert, and on a ranch in San Bernardino. Although she first studied ballet,
in 1934, she joined Lester Horton's company, became its lead dancer, and was instrumental in the development of the Horton Technique. There, she met Newell Taylor Reynolds; they married in 1940.

In 1946 Lewitzky founded Dance Theater of Los Angeles with Horton. Dance Theater of Los Angeles was one of the few institutions in the United States to house both a dance school and theater under the same roof. She left the company in 1950 to pursue her own interests and an independent career.

Photograph from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.

She choreographed the films Bagdad (1949 with Lester Horton) , Tripoli (1950) & Prehistoric Women (1950)
In 1951, she was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee to answer questions about communist activities in the arts. "I'm a dancer, not a singer," she replied.
In 1955 Lewitzky gave birth to her only daughter, Nora Reynolds. In 1958 she became the founding chair of the dance department at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, which has since been renamed the Idyllwild Arts Academy. She taught at the school until 1972. Her daughter, Nora, joined the dance faculty in 2003 and continues teaching Lewitzky technique. The Idyllwild Arts Academy is one of the few dance programs in the United States that offers Lewitzky Technique as part of their curriculum.

In 1966 she founded the Lewitzky Dance Company (Bella Lewitzky Dance Theatre) and was appointed Dean of Dance at the California Institute of the Arts. Her company performed and toured internationally for the next thirty years.

Under her artistic guidance, the company became one of the leading international modern dance companies, performing to critical acclaim in 43 states across the U.S. as well as 20 countries on five continents.
The originality, humanity and unconventional qualities for which Lewitzky's dances are famous often found their way into the management of her company. At a time when it was fashionable for dance companies to be based in New York -- and dangerous not to be -- she kept her company operating out of her native Los Angeles for thirty years.

Her originality, humanity and unconventional qualities also led to a controversial episode in 1990, when she crossed out the anti-obscenity clause on the acceptance form of a $72,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant. She eventually had to sue NEA-chairman John E. Frohnmayer to have the grant reinstated. The New York Times quoted her as saying in response, "I've been struggling in dance for 28 years. To exist merely to exist is stupidity. To exist to make art is a pretty grand act."

Although her company was forced to disband, Lewitzky ultimately prevailed and won the judgement. Gathering her forces, she re-united her company and in 1997 organized a farewell tour and gala before its permanent closure. Lewitzky’s life is an important and untold American story, one effecting every citizen.

Although she no longer performed, her creative energy continued unabated, with each year seeing the creation of at least one eagerly awaited new dance. She never stopped caring about her art form, a fact borne out by the numerous awards she received for service to dance and the advisory and honorary positions she held on boards and councils of prestigious arts institutions across the nation.

Bella Lewitzky died on July 16, 2004. At 88, her physical health had deteriorated but her vital spirit continued to inspire those around her.

She received many awards including honorary doctorates from California Institute of Arts (1981), Occidental College (1984), Otis Parsons College (1989), and the Juilliard School (1993)

Designated one of America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition and awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton, Lewitzky’s life demonstrates how an artist with vision and tenacity can change the lives of her fellow citizens for the better.

Good Adjudication Advice

2007-05-13T19:17:00.000-06:00

The preparation to a lift, a weight share, a turn or even another 8 count should be an integral part of the dance.

There is energy in a pause.

There is flowing energy in stillness.

Use the floor! It is your friend.

Show the difference between staccato and sustained movement or transitions.

Breath with your dance.

Come from center.

Shawn Holt

2007-05-13T10:11:00.000-06:00

Run. . . . Jump . . . . Fly!

That is what the choreographer said. She was serious! And we were seriously committed to the experience.

The dance was called "Paranoimia" and we flew!

(This is not a picture of our dance. It just comes close)