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June 15-18, 2006 |
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It is fitting that this year's Over time, Horton's technique
has been codified, passed on, embellished, altered, and cherished for its
innovation and the ability to form a fully capable instrument of movement
without imprinting the dancer with a discernable style. Lester
Horton's contribution is seminal to the modern dance of today, and imparts
the dancer with strength, flexibility, balance, rhythm, and lyricism.
But Lester Horton's legacy is so much more than a technique. It is a
full bodied, living theater, a construct of spirit, creativity, and genius
that set standards and provided springboards for some of the most eloquent
dance artists of the 20th Century including, Bella Lewitzky,
Alvin Ailey, Jimmie Truitte, Carmen DeLavallade, Don Martin, Joyce Trisler,
and Milton Meyers. Thanks to Please immerse yourself in the
limitless, creative world of Lester Horton and the many gifts he bestowed on
us. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to study with the
event's Master faculty, a thorough, knowledgeable crop of his kindred
spirits. Thank you for visiting our site.
Diana Dinerman
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Horton
Summit Staff Diana
Dinerman Board of Directors: Larry Billman, Diana Dinerman, Dr. Heide Hamelberg, Philippe Venghiattis Board of Advisors: Dr. Maya Angelou, Frank Eng, Robin Kennedy, Esq.
"Lester Horton Modern Dance Pioneer," Larry Warren, Dance Horizons, 1977 "Dancing in the Sun: Hollywood Choreographers
1915-1937,” Naima Prevots,
Lester Horton’s “Salome” 1934-1953 and
after, Dance Research Journal, Richard Bizot,
Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1984) pp. 35-40 "The Dance Technique of Lester Horton," Marjorie
B. Perces, Ana Marie Forsythe, Cheryl Bell,
Princeton Book Company, 1992 Genius on the The Lester I knew, David Lober,
www.adolphbolm.com Lester Horton Dance Theater Collection, Music Division,
Library of Congress, Genius on the Wrong Coast (video recording), Lelia Goldoni, distributed by Camera three Tribute to Lester Horton (video recording),
1963 The Library of Congress Collection |
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NEW YORK – Painters, writers and composers
can all work disregarded in an attic waiting for posterity to reward them,
their spirits kept aloft the thought of posthumous justification. A
choreographer has no such comfort,. A choreographer is here today and soon
forgotten tomorrow. His works cannot normally be preserved for posterity to
revoke the judgment of his own time. There have been examples, however, of
choreographers becoming more famous after his death than they were in their
lifetime. The 19th century Danish choreographer, August Bournonville,
had to wait until the last two decades before his ghost could find the
international acclaim he had hankered for during his lifetime. And another
far more recent example is the West Coast dancer Lester Horton, who died in
1953 at the age of 47. Dance Perspectives is carrying “Lester
Horton Dance Theater,” a symposium on Horton contributed by Larry
Warren, Frank Eng, Bella Lewitzky and Joyce Trisler. It provides one of the most interesting issues
this often provocative dance quarterly has put out in some time. The neglect of Horton is easily understood. For
a modern dancer he committed the unforgivable crime of working on the wrong
coast, choosing Los Angeles as his center rather than New York. Miss Trisler neatly
sums up the reasons for Horton’s non-acceptance in a most thoughtful
essay she calls “The Magic and the Commitment.” After discussing,
very perceptively, what it was like to work with Horton, she says: “He
worked in an almost hostile environment. He confused the conservative critics
of the Los Angeles papers, who frequently found his works arty and
pretentious, and always found it avant-garde…” Born in Indianapolis, Horton first found an
interest in dance developing from his fascination with the American Indian.
He loved Indian dance and ritual and as a younger child he studied these
first hand. Later he took ballet classes in Indianapolis. During World War II Horton’s group broke
up and Horton was chiefly concerned with making Hollywood musicals. But in
1946, Horton, Miss Lewitzky, her husband, Newell
Reynolds, and William Bowne, a long-time association of Horton, founded the
Dance Theater. Until Horton’s death the dance theater was
his home and work. How important a choreographer was Horton? Judging from his work – slight and
fragmentary as it is – seen from the Ailey company, I would guess that
Horton was a choreographer of very considerable talent. We shall never know what Horton’s
influence might have been on American modern dance had he elected to work in
the New York mainstream. Obviously, he would have found more recognition, but
perhaps that climate of hostility in which he worked was necessary to him.
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