Dance History – Page 2

Dance and Poetry: An Elegy for Helen Tamiris

JoAnne Tucker / October 27, 2022 / Dance History, Perry-Mansfield, Personal Life, Poetry, Uncategorized

Recently I signed up for an Introduction to Poetry class. Several things motivated me. We had begun a writer’s group where I live, and I thought I would like to share poems. I have loved poetry since I was a teenager, and I have choreographed many pieces to poems.

In our very first class the teacher introduced us to the form of elegy and used Walt Whitman’s O Captain! My Captain! as an example. After going over the format and purpose of the elegy, he asked us to write one. As I reread O Captain! My Captain! I began reflecting on the experience of being in Helen Tamiris’s Dance for Walt Whitman at Perry-Mansfield during the summer of 1958. That was a defining experience in helping me realize that I wanted a career in dance, and it had provided an excellent example of how poetry can inspire a piece of choreography.

When I look back over my career as a choreographer, I realize how often I turned to poetry as the stimulus for movement. That idea had been introduced to me by Helen Tamiris, so it was no surprise that I decided to do my elegy for her and to use the structure and rhyming pattern of O Captain! My Captain! as my model.

Elegy for Helen Tamiris

By JoAnne Tucker

A frayed program, carefully saved, recalls long ago days

There is still time to remember and sing your praise

You stood, arms outstretched, framed by aspen gently swaying

Directions given, challenges accepted, our energy outpouring,

Alas, a google search

Your name barely marked

Too many years have passed

Still a desire remains in my heart.

Those of us, hold tightly onto each other,

Make a chain, rock endlessly, calling the primal mother

We cannot forget, your teaching remains within us living

We have gone forth, as a curious child goes exploring.

Tamiris, O Tamiris

Fifty years since you departed

Your legacy begins to fade

Memories linger in my heart.

A legacy of movement and poetry continues still,

New writers and dancers passionate with strong will.

So this old crone will continue to sing your praise

Encourage, mentor and celebrate all my days

To dance to the spoken verse

To follow your pioneer art

Words carefully written

Danced from the heart

Helen Tamiris at Perry-Mansfield, July 1958. Photo taken by JoAnne Tucker.

The first set of poems I choreographed was for a school program in Pittsburgh shortly after leaving Juilliard. The dancers were six high school students, and the program toured several elementary schools and won a Carnegie Award. Later I would continue to turn to poetry with the Avodah Dance Ensemble, and during my thirty years as Artist Director of that company, I created dances to a variety of different poems. The ones that stand out the most in my memory are:

I Never Saw Another Butterfly, using poems written by children in the Terezin Concentration Camp
Shema, incorporating poetry of Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi
Let My People Go, based on James Weldon Johnson’s poem of the same title
In the Garden, drawn from several poems in the collection Wine, Women and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life, translated by Raymond Scheindlin
Selichot Suite, a section of which uses Denise Levertov’s poem The Thread

I end by welcoming dancers and choreographers to share what poems they have enjoyed dancing to or creating movement for. If you haven’t used poetry and movement together, I strongly encourage you to try it!

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Book Review: Daniel Lewis: A Life in Choreography and the Art of Dance

JoAnne Tucker / October 12, 2022October 27, 2022 / Dance History

Front cover image, Daniel Lewis in La Malinche, choreography by Jose Limon, photograph by Eddie Effron, courtesy Daniel Lewis archives.

I found this book particularly fascinating and fun to read because it enriched and filled in gaps in my knowledge of modern dance from 1962 to 2011. I was active in the New York City dance scene some of the time from 1958 to 2004, and I knew, or knew of, or saw perform, many of the people that are a part of this book.

The format of the book is unique. It is jointly written by Daniel Lewis and Donna Krasnow. Each chapter begins with a paragraph written by Lewis, followed by information about that period in Danny’s life in a biography format drawing on “60 archival boxes of photos, programs, letters, newspaper articles, reviews, posters. And even old airline tickets.” Danny also gave Krasnow a list of people to contact and interview. Included in the book are sections called “Through His Friends Eyes.” Krasnow identifies the friend and how he/she knew Danny and then provides a direct passage from the friend.

As is pointed out in the preface, “[Danny’s] life covered every aspect of the field – dancer, teacher, choreographer, collaborator, artistic director, administrator, mentor and benefactor.” By the time I finished the book I had an inside look at all these facets of his life. While I have only briefly met Danny, I think at a Juilliard alumni event, I do remember watching him in class at Juilliard. I was a second-year student and he was a first-year student. The first year I had to take modern dance technique developed by Jose Limon and technique by Martha Graham, but the second year I did not. I was clearly a Graham person, but one day (and I am not sure why) I was watching the Limon class and was struck with how beautifully Danny moved across the floor in various combinations.

It was really interesting to learn that during his Juilliard student years:

Danny was teaching as a substitute for Jose when he couldn’t be there and demonstrating regularly for his classes, so Danny had a strange kind of in-between role as student and faculty. He was still friends with the students as well as having close ties with Martha Hill and Jose Limon. Finally in 1967, Danny was hired by Martha as a regular faculty member when he was only twenty-three years old.

Krasnow describes in the preface how she took classes with Danny, and the importance of his unique approach to teaching the Limon technique. She describes his gift so clearly, and I quote:

He situated the technique in a larger vision of Limon as the choreographer, the musician, and the artist. We were learning exquisitely gorgeous movement phrases with intricate rhythms, precarious balances, and complex multilimbed coordinations, but all the while, Danny was expressing in analysis and imagery the principles of the work: fall and recovery, suspension, opposition, isolation, and always weight and breath . . . .

After reading about Danny’s style of teaching, I certainly wondered if I wouldn’t have liked Limon technique much more if I had had classes with Danny. How fortunate for Juilliard students who came just a year or so after me, that Martha Hill recognized Danny’s talents and had him teaching!

It was also in his first year at Juilliard that he began touring with the Limon Company. Danny shares that “the experience of touring, performing and having dances created on me by a master artist shaped me not only as a dancer, but as a choreographer and person.” In this section of the book we learn a lot about Jose Limon and the company. I have loved seeing a number of Limon’s works, particularly There is A Time, The Moor’s Pavone, and Missa Brevis, so I found this section right on target. Danny became Artistic Director of the Limon Company from 1972–1974.

One of the most helpful parts of the book is a chart that gives the timeline of Danny’s life from his birth to the present. Since the book isn’t written in strict chronological order, it is helpful to refer back to this.

From 1987 to 2011 Danny was the Dean of Dance at New World School of the Arts (NWSA). I really loved reading about, and have huge admiration and respect for, the innovative way that Danny developed the dance program at the NWSA. It was very interesting to read how he slowly built the program. He would re-evaluate the curriculum each year and see ways to improve it. One unique aspect was that the school always kept a “broad range of dance styles from various cultures.” The program began first as a high school and then developed into a college program with its first graduating class of ten students in 1992.

Among the students who studied at NWSA is Robert Battle, who is now the director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Battle’s section on “Through His Friends Eyes” was one of my favorites. Battle reports, “Danny told me that one day I should have my own company.” Indeed Battle did have his own company, and now he leads one of the major dance companies in the United States. Battle also shares:

When I returned to NWSA to set a work … sitting in the office talking with him was like watching a circus act. Danny would be doing multiple things at once – on the phone, solving problems and making things possible. I came to appreciate this quality in my own life, the job of juggling many balls at once . . . .

When Battle spoke at Danny’s retirement ceremony, he said, “I can only quote the words of Patrick Henry, ‘I know of no other way of judging the future but by the past,’ and so I seriously doubt Danny is retiring.”

As a friend of Danny’s on Facebook, I can see this is true. Danny continues to play an active role in the dance community in a variety of different ways.

My goal in this review is to point out a few of the parts of the book that strongly resonated with me and to encourage you to read the book for yourself. I have left out much about the time Daniel directed his own company and many important people in the dance community such as Anna Sokolow that he worked with or the numerous things he did while at NWSA . Learn more by ordering the book and by following some of the links at the bottom of this blog. The book is easily available via Amazon. I enjoyed reading it on my Kindle here in Costa Rica. Thank you, Danny, for your outstanding contribution to dance and for making the documentation of your life work available for the dance community!

Felix Fibich – Aging with Grace and a Model for “You are Never Too Old to . . . ???”

JoAnne Tucker / August 4, 2022 / Dance History, Personal Life

I knew very little about Felix Fibich when I worked with him in the Children’s Theatre production I mentioned in my last blog. It has been great fun to learn about him now and to realize that he is a good role model for me as I am nearing my 80^th birthday! In fact, it was when he was 83 that he had national visibility.

Marsha Leon describes this beautifully in an article she wrote shortly after his death in 2014 at the age of 96.

But it was in 2001, with the widely aired sidesplitting Cingular TV commercial, that Fibich got national visibility. Looking like a bald leprechaun in a black body-fitting leotard, he attempts to teach a group of 300 lb. football players how to perform plies (elegant balletic squats) and entrechats (a balletic feat that involves twice crossing your legs at the ankle in mid-air). He exhorts these gravity-bound Sumo size athletes “to strut- trut-strut like a peacock” to “walk like a camel in the desert” and “sway like a Redwood tree.” https://forward.com/schmooze/195544/remembering-felix-fibich-yiddish-choreographer-dan/

And here’s the link to watch the actual commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28xAjbdiZCM

But that is not all that Fibich accomplished in his 80’s. In an essay which was based on a February 1997 interviewconducted by Judith Brin Ingber for the Oral History Project, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, New York City), Ingber wrote:

In the 1990s, by then in his middle eighties, Fibich experienced a renaissance as both a dancer and choreographer. He performed a lead role in the musical Planet Lulu [directed by the Belgian Michel Laub]7 which toured extensively throughout Europe in 1998 and 1999; and because of his acting skills and facility with French, Yiddish, Polish and English he acted simultaneously in all those languages in the 1998 full length French feature film, XXL. His homecoming to Poland as a dancer/teacher at the famed Krakow Jewish Cultural Festival in July 1996 resulted in a Polish television special about him and requests for him to appear again in Poland. He has also taught for the last decade under the auspices of KlezKamp at their annual New York Yiddish Folk Arts Program, their master teacher for “Interpreting Jewish Dance,” as part of their “Living Tradition Meetings with Our Masters.” http://www.jbriningber.com/Fibich_Apr_18_07.pdf

I highly recommend using the link to the full essay and interview if you are interested in learning more about Fibich!

To add to Judith’s article about things Fibich did in his 80’s, there were several other theatre performances, and appearances in Law and Order on television.

In learning about Fibich’s early life, several themes became apparent! He loved Jewish culture and Yiddish theatre, where he found ways to express himself. He also was consistently challenged by changes in the world happening around him, fleeing and escaping, often leaving everything behind!

He was born in 1917 in Warsaw, Poland. He began participating in theater in the 1930’s. He grew up with Polish as his main language, so in order to audition for the theater company he wanted to join, he learned Yiddish. It was in the theater company that he met Judith Berg, who was choreographing for the company and would later become his wife.

After Poland was invaded by the Germans, Mr. Fibich and his parents were sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1940, Mr. Fibich escaped and traveled to Soviet-controlled Bialystok. It was there he reconnected with Judith Berg who was working in a Yiddish revue. They toured with the troupe and were married before returning to Poland when the war was over. His parents died in the Holocaust.

Once back in Poland, Fibich and Berg developed a dance program for orphaned children, before fleeing again — this time to Paris in 1949 when the Communists took over Poland. A year later they came to America where they toured, taught and choreographed, becoming an important part of Yiddish Theater in the U.S. over the next several decades.

In Daniel Lewis’ book A Life in Choreography and the Art of Dance, Danny describes working with Felix beginning when he was in High School in 1961. He continued working for him until 1967, both in the actual Yiddish Theater on the Lower East Side and also in classical concert performances as part of the Fibich Dance Company. Danny relates how Felix always went to the High School of Performing Arts and Juilliard to find and recruit dancers. Danny goes on to say that Fibich had a huge effect on many young dancers and actors, giving them employment and a salary in the early part of their careers.

It is indeed fun to see how one thing can lead to another. An email letting me know that the National Dance Education Association was doing a panel discussion on Jewish contributions to dance in the United States led me to hear Danny Lewis speak about Felix Fibich. Not only did it bring back recollections of time spent in a Children’s Theatre production but it led me to do research about him. I have a lot of respect for how Fibich conducted his life, and he is now a role model for me, reminding me of all the possibilities in the coming years! Thank you, Danny, for your presentation and your book, and thank you Felix Fibich for your passion and determination!

Felix Fibich being lifted by a football player in the Commercial he made for the Super Bowl!

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A Performing Experience Long Forgotten is Remembered!!

JoAnne Tucker / July 9, 2022 / Dance History, Personal Life

When I saw that the National Dance Education Organization was having a panel discussion entitled “Celebrating Jewish American Contributions to the Field of Dance,” I marked the date (May 24th) on my calendar to make sure to zoom in! I missed the actual time, but it was recorded, so I watched a day later. I was half listening when one of the panel members, Danny Lewis, mentioned being a part of the Yiddish Theatre and said how much he enjoyed working with Felix Fibich! Wow… I had worked with Fibich too and hadn’t thought about that experience in years!

In the fall of 1961, a friend from Juilliard, Margaret Gettleman, recommended me to Fibich because she was participating in a children’s theatre production he was choreographing, and he needed another dancer. That’s how I became a wood sprite named Yok Tan in the Jewish Theatre for Children’s production of “To Wake the King.” Each Sunday from November to April we performed for a large audience of nearly 1,000 children between the ages of 8 to 14 at a theater on the Upper East Side.

The Jewish Theatre for Children was founded and directed by Samuel J. Citron. I have a vague memory of his role as director of “To Wake the King” and found it interesting to Google and learn a little bit about him. Born in Poland in 1908, he immigrated to the United States when he was thirteen. He became a lawyer in New York and then earned a Hebrew Teacher’s License and transitioned into Jewish Education full time. Employed by the Jewish Education Committee, he directed its School Dramatics Department and was chair of the Audio-Visual Materials Committee. For twenty years the theatre he founded presented programs for children each Sunday. He was also often the author of the plays, as was the case with “To Wake the King” which was based on an old legend that says King David is really not dead but asleep in a cave!

I must admit I don’t remember much about Felix Fibich’s choreography other than an emphasis on how we used our arms and hands as wood sprites, and I think some of it might have been improvised. I do remember it was great fun to put on the makeup and costume each Sunday and to receive payment for the performance! I seem to remember that we received $25 for each performance. That was pretty good considering it was 1961-62. We also received reviews in New York City papers.

Photo from my scrapbook taken by the photographer of the Jewish Theatre for Children, November 1961. Can you find me in the picture??

In my next blog I will share more about Felix Fibich. Danny’s presentation as part of the panel “Celebrating Jewish Americans Contributions to the Field of Dance” is motivation to learn more about the person I worked with 60 years ago.

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Celebrating Two Recent Dance Virtual Events

JoAnne Tucker / December 5, 2021 / Current Dance Events, Dance History

While we are all so eager to be at live events, I am so grateful to have been able to participate in two virtual Zoom gatherings from my home in Costa Rica. Without this option I would not have been able to be a part of either of them. On Monday night, November 22^nd, The Martha Hill Dance Fund’s Celebration honoring two dancers started with a film and panel discussion via Vimeo, followed by a social gathering via Zoom. On Saturday afternoon, November 20th, The Sacred Dance Guild had a panel discussion on Dance as Healing, and I was pleased to be one of the five panelists. It is exciting to see how well events can now be organized and technically handled online.

Let me begin by sharing the first event, “A Panel Discussion on Healing,” which is part of a larger series called “Is This Sacred Dance?” Back in the late 80’s and into the 90’s I was a member of the Sacred Dance Guild and occasionally led workshops at their conferences. As Artistic Director of the Avodah Dance Ensemble I was often invited to represent a Jewish perspective, as the majority of the members were Christian. I was really surprised to be contacted by the current President, Wendy Morrell, this past spring. She was reaching out to explore the possibility of my participating in one of their quarterly events featuring a panel. My name had come up at an organizational meeting, and they were able to find me via a Google search and my postings on this blog. Wendy and I had a lively conversation and it was very interesting to hear how the organization was addressing the question “What is Sacred Dance?” After hearing about my recent work with domestic violence survivors and my work in prisons she thought I would be an excellent fit for the fall panel on healing.

There would be five panelists and each of us would be given five minutes to introduce ourselves and the kind of work we did. Then the moderator would ask three questions before opening it to any questions that had been submitted via “chat.” I enjoyed preparing and refreshing my presenting skills. Zoom is easy because you can have notes or read what you have prepared, with the camera still seeing your face and not what you are reading unless you do a screen share. We were also asked to have a closing movement gesture.

When the day arrived I was prepared and ready to go. And of course, the electricity went off 10 minutes before the program was to begin. Losing electricity happens often in Costa Rica. As my house is closest to the guard house in our community, I have a small generator to keep my internet and the guard house internet working during a blackout. Wow, was I glad to have that! So I let the moderator know that I didn’t think it would be a problem and she decided that I should go first just in case it was. And so I presented mainly about my work in prisons and in making films with domestic violence survivors.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing each of the other four presenters, and I liked the variety of approaches that were shared. Each of the presenters has a unique background, and presentations were well organized. I strongly recommend going to this link to learn about the presenters: Alexia Jones, Priya Lakhi, Ilene Serlin and Carla Walter. https://sacreddanceguild.org/event-details/?event=651

Screenshot of the publicity for the program

The recording of the event has now been posted along with two earlier panels. Here’s a link to YouTube if you want to watch the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zlJsV44uHo&list=PL-1ZesdI7wMeVx_P2Gae9zGTOlYGVP78M&index=3

On Monday night, the Martha Hill Dance Fund honored Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Heidi Latsky. The presentation on Vimeo began with film clips that I think are from the documentary made about Martha Hill. What a wonderful way to open the evening, seeing Miss Hill and other dancers reminding us of the roots of modern dance!. (I just discovered that Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter is available to rent or buy at iTunes and I look forward to getting it very soon.) Next were two short films summarizing each of the honorees.

I was particularly thrilled that Jawole was being honored. I knew Jawole from the time she was a graduate student at Florida State University in Tallahassee in the late 1970’s when I was living there and often attending dance classes at FSU. I have a very vivid memory of seeing an early piece of hers in an evening concert of student works and thinking, “Wow… that woman has something important to say.” It stood out and stayed in my memory to this very day. Perhaps that piece for women provided a beginning for what has become one of her most well-known pieces, Shelter. Shelter officially premiered in 1988 and is set for 6 women. It was first performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1992 and then revised in 2017. The Ailey website describes it as “a passionate statement about the physical and emotional deprivation of homeless people . . . the compelling message that the poverty of individuals will inevitably lead to the destitution of all humanity.” It has been performed by both an all-female and all-male cast.

The other honoree was Heidi Latsky. I was not familiar with her work at all and look forward to knowing more about her. What was very fascinating was the video section showing her work with bilateral amputee Lisa Bufano. She began doing this work in 2006 and refers to this time as an intensive period of creation. To learn more about Heidi and Jawole I suggest going to the Martha Hill Dance Fund site that tells about the evening and gives full bios: https://www.marthahilldance.org/martha-hill-virtual-celebration-2021

Danni Gee led an excellent discussion with Heidi and Jawole. Then, in recognition of the 75^th anniversary of the Jose Limon Dance Company, the Vimeo portion ended with a section from There is A Time, choreographed by Jose Limon in 1956.

Following the formal presentation, many of the 80 attendees from the Vimeo section stayed to visit with each other via Zoom. There were four breakout rooms, and once one figured out the technology it was possible to move from room to room. It was great fun to see faces that I haven’t seen for years and say a quick hello! The main topic of conversation was about what live dance events people had attended. The occasion was a delightful event in the true spirit of The Martha Hill Dance Fund, which was founded to honor, perpetuate and reward Martha Hill’s commitment to dance education and performance internationally.

Screen shot of invitation to the event.

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Agnes de Mille at Perry Mansfield – Part II

JoAnne Tucker / August 3, 2021August 3, 2021 / Dance History, Musical Theater, Perry-Mansfield

One of the challenges that Linda Kent faced when she was Director of Dance at Perry-Mansfield was to provide really meaningful experiences for the dance students after their concert which was held the fourth week of camp. That meant there were still two weeks left of the six-week program. She came up with the idea of bringing guest artists to P-M so the students would be exposed to both master classes and a lecture demonstration by an outstanding artist.

In 2007, P-M faculty member Christina Paolucci arranged an amazing experience featuring Gemze de Lappe sharing work of Agnes de Mille, along with two dancers and a musician. (At that time I did not know about Agnes de Mille’s history with P-M. Check out Part I of this blog to learn about it.) I was thrilled that the students would be able to have master classes and a lecture demonstration, and so Murray and I made a contribution to P-M to help fund it.

Christina at the time was Educational Director/Associate Artistic Director at New York Theatre Ballet, and Gemze had been working extensively with NYTB from 2005 until her death in 2017 as NYTB presented many excerpts from de Mille’s ballets. A highlight of NYTB’s work on de Mille was a production called Dance/Speak. A description in TheatreMania describes it well:

The New York Theatre Ballet celebrates its 30th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of Dance/Speak: The Life of Agnes de Mille, a dance/drama which tells the story of choreographer Agnes de Mille’s struggle for success in the American theatre. Written by Anderson Ferrell, novelist and director of The de Mille Working Group; Directed by Scott Alan Evans; Staged by Gemze de Lappe (including dances from Oklahoma!, Carousel, Brigadoon as well as Fall River Legend, Three Virgins and a Devil, Rodeo, and Debut at the Opera) with Additional Choreography by Liza Gennaro. All performances are followed by an intimate panel discussion with the creators.
https://www.theatermania.com/shows/new-york-city-theater/dancespeak-the-life-of-agnes-de-mille_154271

Diana Byer, Sallie Wilson, Gemze deLappe and Paul Sutherland at a post-performance conversation after an evening of de Mille works produced by NYTB. Photo by Christina Paolucci

Elena Zahlmann and Terence Duncan in Oklahoma! Photo by Richard Termine, courtesy of New York Theatre Ballet

An obituary in The New York Times helped me understand better the contribution that Gemze made to the dance world and to keeping the integrity of de Mille’s choreography. Richard Sandomer described it well in this quote:

Miss de Lappe understood that de Mille’s dancers had to be actors, and that her choreography — which was celebrated for incorporating elements of folk dancing and classical ballet — was as much about forging character as it was about learning the steps. When she recreated de Mille’s choreography, Miss de Lappe used her mentor’s vocabulary, vivid with motivational similes, to inform even the subtlest of movements.

The obituary also pointed out:

Miss de Lappe’s association with de Mille began in 1943 when she was cast in a small part in the first national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s“Oklahoma!”

…“She was the potter’s clay for Agnes and one of her foremost interpreters,” Anderson Ferrell, director of the de Mille Working Group, which licenses performances of de Mille’s dances, said in a telephone interview. “Gemze was her muse.”

Here’s the link to read the full Obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/obituaries/gemze-de-lappe-95-dies-keeper-of-the-agnes-de-mille-flame.html

Over the course of three days Gemze along with dancers Terence Duncan and Julie-Anne Taylor and music director Ferdy Tumakaka conducted a Repertory class for P-M dancers, held two master classes open to the public and presented an hour-long lecture demonstration. Repertory from Carousel, Brigadoon and Oklahoma were introduced. Christina and Terence remember that Gemze’s master class focused on the breath and very detailed characterization from Carousel.

Gemze (center) teaching at Perry-Mansfield. Photo by Christina Paolucci

Five years later in 2013, to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Perry-Mansfield Linda Kent turned to de Mille’s Rodeo and shared the following with me:

I wanted to celebrate our history and our dance present and future. Rodeo seemed the most perfect look back. I had great ambition and very little budget!!! Paul Sutherland and the de Mille estate worked with us and we did an excerpt of the second half of the dance. Paul has been the exclusive restager of Rodeo since 1979 and he gives the dancers so much more than steps!! It was a miracle to see contemporary 16-21 year olds ransformed into the gals and cowboys of de Mille’s first encounters. Our cowgirl, Cleo Person, was a delight in her awkward mooning over Keil Weiler as our Champion Roper (and fantastic tap dancer). Paul Sutherland was delighted and I was thrilled that we could bring this back to the community where the inspiration began.

Murray and I had already moved from Steamboat Springs to Santa Fe in late 2009 and while at first we returned in the summers, by 2013 we were busy sharing our artwork at fairs and didn’t make it up to Perry-Mansfield for the celebration. We did hear raves from our friends about how well the evening of dance went.

One of the most delightful things of writing the blog posts for Mostly Dance is the interaction I get with other artists sharing memories. I am very grateful to Linda Kent, Christina Paolucci and Terence Duncan for going through notes, photos and memories that made this post possible.

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Agnes de Mille at Perry-Mansfield – Part I

JoAnne Tucker / July 19, 2021 / Dance History, Musical Theater, Perry-Mansfield

It wasn’t until 2011 that I learned that Agnes de Mille had been at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado during the 1930’s. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that the summer I spent at Perry-Mansfield as a teenager in 1958 was life-changing and that Agnes de Mille’s autobiography Dance to the Piper was also a big influence during that period in my life. In 2011 I was a member of the Board of Directors of Perry-Mansfield and was asked to chair a book-signing event for Dorothy Wickenden’s new book Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West. In discussion with Dorothy I learned that the reason she wanted to have her book signing at Perry-Mansfield instead of the local bookstore was she wanted square dancing and if possible an excerpt from de Mille’s Rodeo to be part of the event. She felt this would set the ideal mood for her book and draw people out to the event.

Wickenden’s book Nothing Daunted tells the adventures of two young women, graduates of Smith College, who in the summer of 1916 left their society life in New York state and headed to Colorado to teach school in rural northwestern Colorado. One of the women was Dorothy’s grandmother, and nearly a hundred years later Dorothy discovered her grandmother’s letters. These letters helped her recreate the womens’ saga.

Perry-Mansfield was founded in 1913 by two other Smith College women, Portia Mansfield and Charlotte Perry. “The Ladies,” as they were usually referred to, shared their purpose in the following statement: “Creative practice through art and nature manifests in a thoughtful, insightful, and courageous life.” Certainly Charlotte and Portia knew the two women written about in Nothing Daunted.

C. S. Carley, in one of her blogs at Castleandcoffeehouse.com, notes, “The story of Agnes de Mille in Steamboat Springs is one of the many historical nuggets in Dorothy Wickenden’s bestselling book . . .” Carley goes on to describe de Mille’s stay in Steamboat:

During her stay . . . ,Agnes asked to be taken to a square dance, an important regular social event in the local schoolhouse. Not only was she fascinated with the actual cowboys and girls dancing in actual cowboy boots, but she went out on the floor and did a solo turn, to much applause.

I encourage you to click this link and read the full blog by C.S. Carley. https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2013/09/14/russian-cowboys-in-colorado/

The event for the book signing was planned. It included some square dancing, a duet from Rodeo and of course Dorothy Wickenden speaking.

Dorothy Wickenden speaking at Perry-Mansfield (photo by Murray Tucker)

Sharing the duet from Rodeo was the beginning of a project by Linda Kent, who at the time was the director of dance at Perry-Mansfield. She brought the project to culmination two years later by presenting an

excerpt from the second half of the dance as part of the 100-year celebration of the performing arts camp.

Paul Sutherland is the sole répétiteur of the ballet Rodeo, having been appointed by the choreographer in 1979. There is a wonderful article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that shares the important role Rodeohas played in Sutherland’s life. He first saw the ballet when he was 18, when someone gave him a ticket. The next morning he signed up for a ballet class and two years later he had a contract with The American Ballet Theatre. His first role was dancing one of the cowboys in Rodeo. Here’s the link to the article which shares additional information. http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2011/12/03/stager-paul-sutherland-is-still-in-the-saddle/

Linda arranged for Paul to come to Juilliard and teach the dance to her student Ellie (who would be a scholarship student at Perry-Mansfield in the summer), and to a young man from the Ailey BFA program, who also planned to be at P-M. When the dancer from the Ailey program was unable to attend, Ellie (then at P-M), taught the dance (with Paul’s permission) to Raffles Durbin, who was a scholarship student from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.

The event was a success with a packed, enthusiastic crowd.

Steamboat Sprints Pilot Newspaper, saved by Linda Kent, publicizing the book-signing event!
(Credited to John F. Russell/Staff)

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Agnes de Mille and The Dream Ballet in Oklahoma

JoAnne Tucker / June 30, 2021August 20, 2023 / Dance History, Dance in Film, Musical Theater, Personal Life

Much to my surprise and delight I found that Disney+ was streaming the 1955 movie of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma (that duo’s first musical, created for the stage in 1943). When the movie first came out I wasn’t a big fan, as I didn’t like the casting of the main leads. I loved the original Broadway cast album of Oklahoma that featured Joan Roberts, Alfred Drake and Celeste Holmes. None of them were in the movie so I did not see the movie until many years later. What attracted me to watching the movie this month was that it is one of the few examples of Agnes de Mille’s choreography that we can see today. Since I was a teenager and read Dance to the Piper (published 1952) I had always admired de Mille, who despite being discouraged by her parents from becoming a dancer, and facing numerous struggles as a dancer and choreographer, achieved success through her sheer determination.

De Mille choreographed the movie just as she did the Broadway show. She was hired by Rodgers and Hammerstein following the 1942 success of the ballet Rodeo which she choreographed for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She asked Aaron Copeland to create the score for the piece. It premiered in the fall of 1942 at the Met in New York City with deMille dancing the lead cowgirl. She received 22 curtain calls, and the ballet’s success led to her choreographing the Broadway show which changed the use of dance in musicals. For her, dance was not just an entertainment but rather a way to advance the emotions of the characters and the plot.

The original lead dancers in the dream ballet were Marc Platt, Katherine Sergava and George Church. They doubled for the leading actors, and John Martin in a review in The New York Times wrote that Ms. Sergava, dancing the alter ego of heroine Laurey, “with her strangely remote quality of beauty becomes the ideal heroine of a rather terrifying dream.” Neither Katherine Sergava nor George Church was in the movie. Marc Platt was, but not in his original role of Curly. Instead he had a role dancing and speaking as one of Curly’s pals. The dance leads in the movie were Bambi Linn as Dream Laurey and James Mitchell as Dream Curly. Bambi Lynn made her debut in Oklahoma as a dancer and later went on to a career as a ballroom dancer with her husband Rod Alexander. James Mitchell began as a modern dancer and for 25 years was an assistant to de Mille.

In the movie there is a very graceful transition from the actress Shirley Jones to the dancer Bambi Lynn where for just a moment they mirror each other and then the dream ballet really begins as Laurey runs into and is lifted by Curly and the two dance a very lovely duet. A chorus of women soon joins in and it is a celebration with Laurey imagining her wedding, with a veil that floats down and is put on her head. The scene builds as townspeople gather and an imaginary wedding is about to take place. Curly begins to lift Laurey’s veil when suddenly instead of Curly it is Jud. Laurey flees from Jud and ends up running into a scene of women dancers (women of the night) doing the cancan as Jud watches and at times joins in with them. Laurey continues to be a part of the scene, confused, sad and bewildered, and at times even trying to dance with them. One of the dancers puts Laurey into Jud’s arms and Laurey flees from him and up an open stairway that dramatically is a dead end into open space.

A transition within the ballet is then made with sound effects and lighting suggesting a thunderstorm or tornado, and a trio with Curly, Jud and Laurey begins. Following their struggle, townspeople enter as the energy builds, ending with Jud killing Curly and lifting and carrying Laurey off. This is where the dream ballet ends and the actor Jud appears ready to take the actress Laurey to the party as she awakens from her dream terrified!

As I watched the ballet several times I was struck by what a beautiful ballet de Mille created and what a wonderful score Richard Rogers created using melodies from all different songs in the musical. The dancing is well executed and the way it was filmed added to the richness of the choreography. I also

noted that it was danced on a good soundstage so the dancers could be at their best. We are so lucky to have this available to watch, and I hope I have whet your appetite and you might watch this very well done sixteen minutes of dance. I think that Disney+ still might have a 7-day free subscription trial.

There are other good dance moments in the movie too. One comes about 24 minutes into the film, beginning with a kind of two-step which becomes a vigorous tap dance solo building into a full ensemble dance taking place at the train station. The ending is fun as three of the dancers end up on the roof of the train and two women dancers jump off the train into the arms of waiting men as the train leaves with the male dancer still dancing on the train’s roof!! Another lovely moment is a women’s ballet to the song “Many A New Day.” A square dance in Act II to the “Farmers and the Cowboys Should be Friends” is lively and is used to point out the tension that exists between the cowboys and the farmers, ending with a well choreographed full stage brawl!

While I have to point out that the story doesn’t really work for me anymore the dances sure do, along with the songs! I grew up listening to the music and also remember my Mom mentioning how she had seen the show shortly after it opened with my Dad, who was in the army about to be shipped overseas. She had loved it and talked about the enthusiasm of the audience. I wanted to know more about Oklahoma’s impact at the time related to World War II and found two excellent pieces online related to this. In a blog written by Ryan Raul Banagale he points out that “Oklahoma can be seen as a work that captures an optimistic vision of America at a moment when its future remained very much up in the air.” (https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-at-75-has-the-musical-withstood-the-test-of-time-94110 )

In an article in The New York Times, Todd S. Purdum mentions that “at every performance, there were rows of men in uniform, sitting in seats especially reserved for them, or taking standing room before shipping out overseas.

Both of these articles clearly point out how Oklahoma changed musicals and how the show remains relevant today. I am thrilled we have this example of de Mille’s choreography to watch today. Reading her book, and learning about her, strongly impacted my decision to be a dancer.

In searching for a picture to include I found this wonderful interview of Agnes de Mille talking about the stage version of Oklahoma. While it was uploaded to YouTube in 2013 it is actually from a PBS series done in 1979. We see excerpts from the stage version. It is curious that she never mentions the movie. While the choreography in this clip is similar to the movie I think the movie is actually more interesting and stronger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW35nQUZdk4&list=RDiW35nQUZdk4&index=1

Screenshot from YouTube interview of de Mille in 1979 PBS program

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Remembering Louis Johnson

JoAnne Tucker / April 3, 2020April 10, 2020 / "Let My People Go", Dance History, New York Company, Personal Life

Our “Let My People Go” cast members of The Avodah Dance Ensemble are like a family. There is a special closeness, especially among those of us who worked directly with Louis. So it felt quite natural that the way I would hear about Louis’s passing this past Tuesday, March 31, was to get a message from Christopher Hemmans, who danced in “Let My People Go” while a student at Juilliard. He shared this notice, and a little later I got a text message from Freddie Moore, sharing the same link.

I am filled with so many warm memories of my collaboration and friendship with Louis and feel so blessed that he was an important part of my dance history. I have written many blogs about the collaboration, from the first blog of Mostly Dance (on June 1, 2018) to a most meaningful one on September 7, 2018 describing the last meeting I had with Louis. Kezia so beautifully wrote of Louis in 1999, and that is a part of the September 7^th blog too. I encourage you to check it out along with all the other blogs from June 1 to September 7, 2018.

We are living in such a strange time with so many deaths that I fear that Louis’s passing will go without the proper honoring that he deserves. When Loretta Abbott passed we had a small but very special meeting together at St. Mark’s church hosted by Jeannine Otis. Now it looks like the way we can gather together is via a ZOOM meeting. So I am suggesting to our Avodah family that we do a ZOOM meeting to share our favorite memories of Louis. How about if we plan on doing that after Passover and Easter… on Tuesday, April 21^st, the time to be determined by who wants to participate. Please leave a comment on the blog, or email me directly at jotuc122@gmail.com if you would like to participate.

JoAnne and Louis
Picture taken by Tommy Scott

Tuesday Night Dance Classes: Thank You, Jeanne Beaman

JoAnne Tucker / March 6, 2020March 20, 2020 / Dance History, Personal Life

To get ready to write this blog I googled Jeanne Beaman hoping to find some pictures and a good bio online. Instead I found an obituary. I knew Jeanne was getting up in years but somehow I didn’t expect to find that she had died just this month, having lived to be a hundred. And an even bigger surprise was that she died in Bernallilo, New Mexico. My heart sank. Up until the end of January I had lived within a 40-minute drive of where she had lived. I could have visited her if I had known. I hunched that one of her children must have moved to New Mexico and that she had been living with them. Googling some more I discovered it was her son, Peter, and that he lived in Placido having moved from Pittsburgh. So… this blog takes on a special meaning for me. Not only do I want to share the strong impact she had on my development as a dancer and person but I deeply want to honor her.

Jeanne Beaman https://obituaries.gloucestertimes.com/obituary/jeanne-beaman-1078445337

I was probably about 14 when I began taking an adult modern dance class that met on Tuesday evenings in Genevieve Jones’s Oakland studio. Luckily a friend of my Mom’s regularly took the class and offered to drive me to and from the class until I was 16 and could drive myself. I was the only young person in the class and it was quite a wonderful group of adults, many of whom still stand out in my mind as if it were only yesterday. Fran Balter, the friend of my Mom’s, had children close to my age and had studied dance at Bennington and the Martha Graham Studio. She was a tall, stately, elegant woman. And then there was Cecil Kitcat. She taught dance at Carnegie Mellon (then called Carnegie Tech). She had a strong British accent and was probably in her 60’s. She seemed very old to me and quite a character as she enthusiastically attacked the movement. Several other women were regulars, and I don’t remember if we had any men in the class.

Jeanne led the class with focused intent. Small, with her hair in a tight bun, she guided us through a serious modern dance class, drawing from several different modern dance pioneers and putting together wonderful combinations of her own. The class was well thought out, beginning with standing stretches, progressing to sitting-on-the-floor work that included Graham contractions and turns around the back. When we stood up again, with pliés and tendus we were ready to go across the floor. And that was what I loved most. I remember one combination that had a super fun fall in it where we ran and lunged with an outstretched arm taking us to the ground followed by a roll and getting back up. I later used that fall in an audition at Perry-Mansfield Dance and Theatre Camp and it got the attention of Helen Tamiris and earned me a spot in a piece she was setting. Tamiris even asked me to please repeat the fall again at the audition. Many of the campers/students had put together a short dance before they came. I hadn’t, so I put together some of my favorite across-the-floor combinations of Jeanne’s, ending with the fall.

For me, Jeanne wasn’t just my modern dance teacher, but someone who could understand my drive and determination to be a dancer and my desire to have a career in dance. Sometimes when I was being challenged at home and discouraged from a dance career she would speak with my parents, helping them to understand my love of dance and encouraging their support.

When Martha Graham’s film A Dancer’s World was made and first broadcast at WQED in Pittsburgh, Jeanne held a reception at Chatham College where she was teaching at the time. Graham was there and I remember being introduced to her and saying that I so wanted to come to NYC and take her Xmas intensive course. And of course she assured me that was indeed possible even for a person as young as I was at the time. (Probably 14 going on 15 at the time…. it would take me until I was 16 to go.)

Later Jeanne left Chatham College and began teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. By then I was in NYC and Juilliard. When I came back home from Juilliard to attend the University of Pittsburgh, the university wouldn’t accept the ballet or modern dance classes from Juilliard to fulfill the required PE credit. So I took Jeanne’s modern dance class in the PE department and served as her demonstrator for the semester. It was kind of our joke that here I was in this beginning modern class to fulfill a PE requirement.

Among my many memories is the composition assignment based on computer-assigned movement. Unexpected movement sequences challenged us. Jeanne was a pioneer in working on using the computer and dance together.

As my dance career developed and Jeanne and her husband had retired, moving to Rockport, Massachusetts during the year, and in the summers to an island in Maine, we kept in touch. She came to a dance performance by Avodah when we were in Boston, and on another tour when I had a day off I visited her in Rockport. One summer when Murray and I planned a Maine trip we had a delightful time visiting her and Richard on their Maine Island.

Murray and I with Jeanne, summer of 1990
at their Maine Island.

We kept in touch, occasionally talking and writing, through the early 2000’s. At some point I knew that her children were encouraging her to leave Rockport where she was then living alone since her husband had died. She wrote that she wasn’t ready yet.

The dance world is small with lots of overlapping connections. At a conference in October of 2018 (when Elizabeth McPherson and I were presenting a workshop on Helen Tamiris), Elizabeth, Lynne Wimmer (a dancer/choreographer/teacher from Pittsburgh) and I were having dinner together. Somehow Lynne and I began talking about classes with Jeanne Beaman. Elizabeth perked up and shared that she had interviewed Jeanne for a book she had written about the early Bennington College summer program. We had fun sharing our memories of Jeanne and marveling at Jeanne’s dance history from starting in ballet with the San Francisco Opera Ballet, then studying with the early dance pioneers, training at Mills College, teaching for many years, and advocating for dance, particularly in Pittsburgh and New England.

There is a strange empty feeling in me right now knowing that she has passed. I send heartfelt love and condolences to her family and am deeply grateful for the role she played in my life.

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