June 15-18, 2006   Los Angeles, CA


Lester Horton

Dancer-teacher-choreographer Lester Horton (1906-1953) is regarded as one of the founders of American modern dance. He developed a unique style of technique and choreography, established the first permanent theater in America devoted to dance, and organized one of the first integrated modern dance companies.

Born and raised in Indiana, Horton's early interests in art, ballet, theater production, and Native American dance led him to participate in local dance pageants. Settling in Los Angeles in the late 1920s, Horton danced with Michio Ito's company and then formed his own group.

His company gave concert performances at major Los Angeles venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theater while Horton continued to teach young dancers. A Los Angeles base and the ability to translate ethnic dances into commercially acceptable formats led to stints choreographing musical numbers for films from the 1940s through the early 1950s.

Throughout his career, Horton combined dance and drama into a total theatrical experience. He was intimately involved in creating all aspects of a production: the costumes, sets, lighting, and music as well as the scenarios and choreography. His fascination with ethnic dance, human sensuality, and cultural history was expressed in a prodigious body of work with themes ranging from the classics to melodrama, social concerns to farce. Horton's "choreodramas" were built on a movement technique that is still taught and used in dance schools and companies.

Horton's company members and students included well-known modern dancers such as Alvin Ailey, Janet Collins, Carmen de Lavallade, Bella Lewitzky, James Mitchell, Joyce Trisler, and James Truitte. Horton collaborated with Lewitzky to develop the foundation of his technique; they joined forces with several other partners to found the Dance Theater in Hollywood in 1946. Dance Theater was the home of the dance company and the school, which featured dance classes for children and adults. The full curriculum developed well-rounded dancers who were also taught art history and theater production. After the partnership dissolved in 1950, Horton maintained Dance Theater with the assistance of business manager Frank Eng, mounting several successful seasons until his death in 1953. Eng sustained the theater for seven more years before closing its doors in 1960. 







“I have seen him stop people in class and ask them, ‘Who are you? If you’re you, don’t try to dance like him or her. Dance like yourself.’ He told us, ‘Your own personal individuality is your most priceless asset.’ Lester didn’t want to make little Lester Hortons out of us.”

-James Truitte, Excerpt from an interview with Larry Warren in New York City, June 3, 1973.

“Lester had a genius for drawing people out of themselves… finding out what their talents were. The great thing about him was his openness- He had no formulas and no limitations. He seemed always to be asking, “What are the possibilities?” My work with him gave me a special awareness and understanding of the way clothes behave on a figure in motion. His sense of plastic form was incredible. I learned so much from him –things that still influence my work now.”

-Rudi Gernreich



Bella Lewitzky

Bella Lewitzky changed the landscape of her chosen art for more than five decades, first as a legendary dancer and then as one of modern dance's premier choreographers. She was the West Coast's leading representative of modern dance and she celebrated the 30th season of her company in 1997, which was its last season. She passed away on July 16, 2004.

Her dance career was launched with the influential West Coast choreographer Lester Horton, who was also a mentor of Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade. She became Horton's colleague and founded with him the Dance Theater of Los Angeles in 1946, one of the few institutions in the United States to house both a dance school and theater under the same roof.

In 1966 she formed the Lewitzky Dance Company. Under her artistic guidance, the company bacame 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.

It also led to a controversial episode in 1990, when she crossed out the anti-obscenity clause on the acceptance form of a $72,000 NEA 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 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 was Los Angeles's own gifted artist, extraordinary educator, caring, humanitarian and champion of freedom of expression.

Read Bella Lewtizky’s "Why Art?”

 "Great control of every motion and placement," she says, "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 says, that "dancing is not normal, that only a strong, knowledgeable body can protect against damage."

-Bella Lewitzky, from an interview with Donna Perlmutter, Dance Magazine, January 1997

 



Michio Ito

Michio Ito (1892c.-1961) was an eminent dance artist whose artistic vision and unique dance technique influenced three continents. A native of Japan, Ito studied at the Dalcroze Institute at Hellerau, near Dresden where he also began to formulate his own technique. Ito toured Europe and collaborated with William Butler Yeats on a production of, “At the Hawk’s Well.” Ito moved to New York City in 1916 and opened a Studio in 1919. His teaching and methodology influenced Ted Shawn, Martha Graham, Pauline Koner, Lester Horton and Luigi among others. Ito created a unique East and West synthesis which gave legitimacy to cross-cultural choreography.


He worked extensively in America in national tours including a 1917 engagement at the Belasco Theatre at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. with Adolph Bolm’s Ballet Intime Co. Ito eventually moved to California where he opened successful dance studios and produced large-scale productions for Hollywood films and at amphitheaters such as the Rose Bowl, the Argus Bowl and the Hollywood Bowl.

Due to politics and prejudice, Michio Ito’s American career abruptly ended in 1941 with the outbreak of World War II when Executive Order 9066 interned 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans. Ito was sent to a concentration camp at Lordsburg, New Mexico and eventually deported to Japan on the ship, the Gripsholm.

Michio Ito then opened the Michio Ito Dance Studios in Tokyo. He continued his productions on a large scale at the request of the U.S. Occupation Forces at the Ernie Pyle Theatre, also known as the Takarazuka Gekijo. Ito continued to be an influential and dedicated teacher/choreographer until his death in 1961. At the funeral Ito’s protégé, Ryuko Maki, and students danced Tchaikovsky’s “Andante Cantabile” as a tribute to this great artist.


View a collection of photographs of Michio Ito.


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