Vitro Nasu

Geoffrey Holder

Multitalented Artist, Dies at 84

Mr. Holder directed a dance troupe from his native Trinidad and Tobago, danced on Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera and won Tony Awards in 1975 for direction of a musical and costume design for “The Wiz,” a rollicking, all-black version of “The Wizard of Oz.” His choreography was in the repertory of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Dance Theater of Harlem. He acted onstage and in films and was an accomplished painter, photographer and sculptor whose works have been shown in galleries and museums. He published a cookbook.

Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade

Photo via

This lavish ballet choreographed, composed and designed by Geoffrey Holder depicts real and imagined events in the life of the renowned Haitian painter, Hector Hyppolite. The goddess Erzulie and St. John the Baptist appear to the central character in a vision, inspiring his vivid, exotic illustrations of the African gods and goddesses that populate Holder’s mystical theater and dance drama.

(image via)

B & B
(Martha Swope/George Balanchine Trust, via New York Public Library)
George Balanchine demonstrating a movement to a young Mikhail Baryshnikov at New York City Ballet.

Jerome Robbins, Edward Villella and Baryshnikov danced The Prodigal Son.

“Balanchine’s choreography upset Prokofiev, who conducted the premiere. The composer had envisioned a production that was ‘real'; his concept of the Siren, whom he saw as demure, differed radically from Balanchine’s. Prokofiev refused to pay Balanchine royalties for his choreography.”

Rouault and Prokofiev
Monte-Carlo, 1929

George Rouault – May 27, 1881

Fauvist and Expressionist
n 1907, Rouault commenced a series of paintings dedicated to courts, clowns and prostitutes. These paintings are interpreted as moral and social criticism. He became attracted to Spiritualism and the dramatic existentialism of the philosopher Jacques Maritain, who remained a close friend for the rest of his life. After that, he dedicated himself to religious subjects. Human nature was always the focus of his interest.

George Balanchine and Arhtur Mitchell

Mitchell shares interesting stories about Balanchine. (youtube) or whyPad de deux was so controversial (youtube)

Arthur Mitchell is an African-American dancer and choreographer who created a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem.
In 1955 Mitchell made his debut as the first African American with the New York City Ballet
Mitchell was the only African-American dancer with the NY City Ballet until 1970. Choreographer and director of the NYCB George Balanchine created the pas de deux in Agon especially for Mitchell and the white ballerina Diana Adams. Although Mitchell danced this role with white partners throughout the world, he could not perform it on commercial television in the United States before 1965, because states in the South refused to carry it.

Arthur Mitchell

Slim dragon-fly
too rapid for the eye
to cage,

contagious gem of virtuosity
make visible, mentality.
Your jewels of mobility

reveal
and veil
a peacock-tail.

— by Marianne Moore

Other related links..
4 temperaments - Portraits of Paul Hindemith -

THe Unknown Balanchine.. (Balanchine’s early years)

George Balanchine was born on January 22 [O.S. January 9] 1904.

Virgil T
and Gertrude Stein (Photo via )

Four Saints in Three Acts Music by Virgil Thomson, original libretto by Gertrude Stein.

(Mark Morris – here and here )

Alice Neel
1971 Virgil Thomson
Oil on Canvas
48 x 37 inches / 121.9 x 94 cm
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989)

Virgil Thomson like many other great composers studied under Nadia Boulanger (scroll down)

More music by V.T.

Portraits (youtube)

Louisiana Story.. (Youtube)
Robert Flaherty – 1948

Image via

Happy birthday Meredith Monk

Book of Days

Peter Greenaway documentary part 1 (8 parts)

Lots of great images and videos here: Meredith Monka An Art That Seeks

Happy birthday Bjork and Meredith M.. (Bjork’s birthday is Nov 21..one day later)

More 4 T’s ballet on youtube here <> <> here and here

Four Temperaments

The Four Temperaments is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to music he commissioned from Paul Hindemith (the latter’s eponymous 1940 music for string orchestra and piano) for the opening program of Ballet Society, immediate forerunner of City Ballet. The première took place on Wednesday, November 20th, 1946, at the Central High School of Needle Trades, New York City

George Balanchine – archive

Paul Hindemith
(16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor.

Eearly Years (See many family photos here)

Hindemith’s early childhood was marked by his father’s draconian style of upbringing. He brought up his children with extreme harshness, attempting to secure upward mobility for them (that had been denied him) through «colossally strict drill starting at the earliest age» and «the most precise inspection.»

Paul Hindemith by August Sander

Via Tate

Paul Hindemith and Stravinsky

Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1961.
Santa Fe Opera mounted Hindemith’s “News Of The Day” and Stravinsky’s “Persephone” that summer.

Mathias Der Maler (Opera)

Trauermusik (Funeral music)

Hindemith wrote Gebrauchsmusik (Music for Use)—compositions intended to have a social or political purpose and sometimes written to be played by amateurs. The concept was inspired by Bertolt Brecht. An example of this is his Trauermusik (Funeral Music), written in January 1936. Hindemith was preparing the London premiere of Der Schwanendreher when he heard news of the death of George V. He quickly wrote this piece for solo viola and string orchestra in tribute to the late king, and the premiere was given that same evening, the day after the king’s death.[

Birthday of Igor Google Igor
Igor by Pablo Picasso (via)
See previous post.

R.I.P Maria Tallchief (Chicago Tribune) she was 88.

Maria with Mr. B.

On Balanchine.

Passion and romance didn’t play a big role…. We saved our emotion for the classroom. And despite his reputation as a much married man obsessed with ballerinas, George was no Don Juan.”

Under Balanchine, Tallchief changed physically. Her neck grew longer. She dropped 10 pounds. She took on the deportment of the Russian stylist. Her chest was high, her back straight, her instep arched. “What did I learn? I learned to turn out. How to point my toes properly. Where I belonged. Where to place my body. What muscles had to be developed — every one. Otherwise there was no way I was going to dance his ballets.”

See Nureyev and Maria Tallchief dance here (Youtube)

Nureyve chose Maria to dance with him for his debut in America..
Nureyev had affairs with the ballerina Maria Tallchief and with Erik Bruhn, long his idol as a dancer and the complicated, often unhappy, love of his life.

Parade wiki

In 1917 Guillaume Apollinare first coined the word Surrealism in the program notes for the ballet Parade; partly reproduced here.
It was an extraordinary gathering of enormous talents with the set, curtain and costumes by Pablo Picasso (these pictures seldom seen and never published)

The scenario was by Jean Cocteau; and the score by Erik Satie.

picture via

Collaboration with Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau (youtube)

More image from Flickr

Click to see large
Click to see large

Paperware. (4 images here) by JTWine full body armor
selected images from the paper wear clothes line: shopping bags, color sheets & safety pins; posing in hat-masks, bibs, loin cloth, skirts and ties, 2003-2005, with Silvia Nonenmacher

Jurgen Trautwein NOW - (Jtwine blog)

Mike Kelley (many fabulous images from Contemporary Art Daily)

Dance from Tearoom

Paper man (Oscar award winning animated short)

Dome

Noguchi Garden
in Jerusalem <>

( Photos by Fung-Lin Hall taken from the Billy Rose Garden in Jerusalem)

Isamu Noguchi – Nov 17, 1904

(image via)

This set by acclaimed designer Isamu Noguchi, used in Martha Graham’s ‘Embattled Garden,’ was damaged when basement storage of the Martha Graham Dance Company, located in the West Village, flooded in late October 2012. The company said it is still assessing the extent of the damage.

See Isamu Noguchi design from The Appalachian Spring..

Noguchi Museum NY..(youtube)

Yoshiko and Isamu Noguchi
Yoshiko Yamaguchi - Isamu Noguchi’s ex-wife .. an international diva who became a politican and has become a passionate advocate for Palestinian causes.

Edward Said on Israel occupation (youtube)

<>
(Thanks to Mirjam Wildner)

After being invited by Benjamin Millepied to a rehearsal for the L.A Dance Project’s premiere performance, Oscar-nominated director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Biutiful (2010), Babel (2006)) was inspired to make a video-exercise that documents movement and dance in an experimental way, with a stream of consciousness narrative. The result is NARAN JA (One Act Orange Dance).(The Creators’ Project)

Benjamin Millepied is married to Natalie Portman.

Image via

<>

Paddy Considine On Asperger’s Syndrome, BBC Radio Dec 2011

Happy birthday Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan directed Magdalene Sisters (Joni Mitchell dedicated the song – previous post).

Peter Mullan was in Young Adam

Sarang is a Korean song.

Pina and Ronald Kay (her husband – photo via)

Pina Bausch was born on 27 July 1940.

See more from Pina Bausch Archive.