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Just Doing It: Lester Horton's Grandchildren
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12102 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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3 / 1994 |
2,022 Words |
| Author
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Maya Wallach
Maya Wallach is a dance writer, critic, and photographer
currently based in Los Angeles |
From Horton's early dance theater to Alvin Ailey's multiethnic company to Los Angeles' Footprints troupe today, a proud American Modern Dance tradition lives on.
Lester Horton didn't care that his name was never a household word. He didn't care that his theater-the first permanent theater for dance in America-was on the wrong coast, located in Los Angeles instead of New York. Nor did he care-and this was in the 1930s and '40s-about the race, class, sexual orientation, or politics of his dancers. Horton didn't have time for societally imposed conventions and limitations. He was too busy creating a new form of dance: inventive, emotional, accessible, powerful dance theater.
Scant Traces
Only a scant handful of his hundreds of choreographies outlasted his death forty years ago. The few that exist on film, such as Orozco, performed by Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade, have become the backbone of a video documentary of Norton's achievements entitled Genius on the Wrong Coast, created by filmmaker and former Horton dancer Lelia Goldoni.
But it would be wrong to think that Horton's influence has disappeared with his dances. Creating new choreographies was only one aspect of Horton, and arguably not even the most important. More critical was how he created his dances. How he inspired his students and company members to respect and develop their own unique talents instead of trying to copy another's gift. How he opened their eyes to all their creative possibilities, encouraging them to try things they had never considered, both in and beyond the dance.
Horton gave his dancers the sense that they could do anything, and running down a list of his former dancers one can see how well his teachings stuck. Alvin Ailey, Bella Lewitzky, Carmen de Lavallade, Joyce Trisler, and James Truitte all made significant contributions to American Modern Dance. Many more of Horton's pupils took his teachings beyond the world of dance: Rudi Gernreich made a name for himself in fashion. Harry Hay became a prominent gay rights activist, James Mitchell became famous on All My Children, and Goldoni, already known in front of the film camera, is now working on a career behind it. Clearly Horton created, as Goldoni puts it, "a race of fearless people."
But even the diverse careers of Horton's many creative "children" are not the best indication of his lasting influence. To
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