News & Notes

News and activities of Nikolais/Louis company members and students.
Send us your updates and special memories.

• Beverly Blossom Receives Martha Hill Award, November 30, 2009
  
  

  Photo: Ernesta Corvino, www.corvinoballet.org

       Beverly Blossom was honored as the recipent of the 2009 Martha Hill Award for lifetime achievement in the field of dance on November 30. The Martha Hill Dance Fund arranged for her to fly into LaGuardia from Chicago with her son, Michael, where Virginia Dillon and I met them and transported them to their hotel on West 42nd Street. Great digs and one block’s walk to the site of the bash at the Cathedral, a beautiful old gothic church, which has almost been swallowed up by the entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel.
  
       We arrived early at the banquet hall, which was spacious with a bar at the entrance and round tables set with hors d’oeuvres and binking-light center pieces. Beverly promptly checked the dias at the far end for the lighting on the lectern: no good!—one amber-pink fresnel in the footlights aimed directly upward into the eyes of the speaker. I got busy to find the men of the establishment, and we did manage to mount an instrument so that it lit the speaker, not the ceiling. Master of Ceremonies Murray Louis arrived soon after and checked the lighting in turn. (Isn’t that what performers do?). The verdict: not good but all that could be done.
  
       People kept pouring in to honor the four recipients: Jacqueline Green, the Young Professional Award; Hortense Zera, a Special Citation; Virginia Johnson, the Mid-Career award, and Beverly Blossom, the Martha Hill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. All of these were presented between courses. The much-revered critric Jennifer Dunning presented the award to Beverly, and then Beverly performed her acceptance, which she enacted in familiar (and wonderful) Beverly fashion.
  
       The hall was full of Nik/Lou folks, of course, and those dancers from Bev’s post-Nik world (a couple all the way from Chicago; a tall fellow-performer, Douglas Nielsen; and many I can’t identify). Mary Anthony, Linda Tarnay and, from the Nik/Lou crowd, Phyllis Lamhut, Robert Small, Lynn Needle, Luise Wykell, Claudia Gitelman, Mimi Garrard, Jeanette Stoner, Steve Vendola, Henning Rübsam, Chris Reisner, and I know I have forgotten to mention YOU. Please let me know if I have, and I will include you in the final report. We all got home not too late after a wonderful celelbratory evening.
  
  
  —Ruth Grauert
  
  
  
• Ruth Grauert and Bebe Miller Receive Honorary Degrees, May 16, 2009
       Bearnstow now has two doctors in the house—Dr. Ruth and Dr. Bebe!  On May 16, Ruth Grauert and Bebe Miler were both awarded Doctors of Humane Letters from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
  
       The connections here are all part of living history and all have as their source our own Ruth Grauert.  Ruth graduated from Ursinus College in 1939—seventy years ago.  She has known Bebe since Bebe was three years old and is acknowledged to be her dance mentor.  Chris Aiken, a professor of Dance at Ursinus, has been a member of Bebe’s Company and has taught at Bearnstow.  His wife, Angie Hauser, also dances with Bebe (their one-year-old daughter, Ruby, doesn’t yet).
  
       The aplomb with which Ruth reached 90 years of age with an honorary doctorate was required just to get to the ceremony by 9:00 a.m. on that Saturday.  Her dear old Volvo

  Ruth Grauert (center left) and Bebe Miller (left behind Ruth) with honorary degrees in hand after the award ceremony at Ursinus College (photo by Virginia Dillon)

  died that week, so she had to take a bus to Philadelphia—ordinarily a two-hour trip, but the bus she was directed onto took the long route—so that she didn’t arrive in Philly till three and a half hours later.  That put her smack in the middle of rush hour, and the drive from Philly to Collegeville took twice the usual time.  But we got there, had a great Greek dinner, and prepared for the next day.
  
       Ruth arose at 6:00 a.m. to have a morning swim and then meet Bebe.  And then they were off to rehearse the “choreography” and get their “costumes” for the event.  The rain that had threatened held off and the ceremony took place in a huge tent on the lawn.  It was really impressive and moving to me, as I hadn’t even attended my own college graduation; the ritualistic aspect was so strong.  Ruth and Bebe entered right before President Strassberger to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance and amid the flashing cameras of families and friends.  God, I love ceremonies and this was a doozey!  The commencement speaker, Phyliss Dennery, a neonatologist from the University of Pennsylvania Children’s Hospital, spoke of her roots in Haiti and overcoming difficulties, not an unusual topic for a graduation ceremony but inspiring if one doesn’t hear it often.
  
       The campus, a mixture of traditional old and modern buildings, is graced by a marvelous sculpture collection so that wherever the eye falls there is a beautiful piece that seems to have been there always.  Ruth and I attended a dance concert there four years ago, and we loved the theater, which is very organic and welcoming and which Ruth deemed technically excellent.
  
       After the ceremony, Bebe, Ruth, her sister June, her nieces Diane and Ruth, and I joined the honorees for a luncheon at the home of President Strassberger.  The settings of President Strassberger’s garden terrace next to the pool were lovely and gracious, and everyone on the campus was courteous, helpful, and kind.  Academia shone that day.
  
       I’ve had the honor of being with Ruth at her 80th birthday at the Caravaglia’s, her Martha Hill Award at Hunter College, her 90th birthday at Lynn Needle’s, and now her honorary doctorate at Ursinus.  Wow—they keep getting better.
  
       Congratulations Ruth and Bebe, and thank you for shining your lights among us.
  
  —Virginia Dillon
  
  
  
• Life of Danial Shapiro Celebrated at the Joyce
       Many gathered on the 5th of May, 2007, to honor the life of dancer-choreographer Danial Shapiro at the Joyce Theater in New York City.  See Danial Shapiro, a Celebration of a Life
  
  
  

Left: Frankie Garcia and Ruth Scherer at Nik and Murray’s house on Barrow Street, mid-70s (photo by Beth Bagnold). Right: Ruth and Frankie at the Joyce Theatre in New York City, February 1988 (photo by Michael Ballard). In Memoriam ~ Ruth Scherer, long-time office administrator for Nikolais/Louis from the Henry Street Playhouse to the 18th Street studio, passed away Wednesday, March 14, 2007. We so remember her warm personality, which nurtured all of us. After leaving the Nikolais/Louis organization she volunteered at the American Museum of Natural History. I spoke with her in December and found her still the loving, bouncing person that we all knew and loved.   —Ruth Grauert

Porcelain Dialogues Revived      at St. Mark’s Church.       On Feb. 1–4, 2007, Janis Brenner and Guests performed a revival of Murray Louis’s 1974 Porcelain Dialogues, pictured here from left to right: Sara Pearson, Betsy Fisher, Robert Small, Janis Brenner, Michael Blake, and Peter Kyle. Opening night was dedicated to Murray Louis and the late Danial Shapiro. See Dance Insider announcement (PDF). Photo © Julie Lemberger

Murray Louis receives Honorary Doctorate, Photo by Cathy Kuehner

• Murray Louis Receives Honorary Doctorate on 80th Birthday. 
       Shenandoah University honored Murray Louis with an Honorary Doctorate of Arts on November 4, 2006. The award ceremony followed the conservatory’s Fall Dance Ensemble Performance, which featured his Bach Suite (1956) and the “Bird Solo” from A Stravinsky Montage (1982). The reconstruction of Bach Suite was made possible by American Masterpieces: Dance, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts. See Claudia Gitelman’s report of the award ceremony.
  
  
  
• Danial Shipiro (MLDC 1978–1985) Dies at Age 48 (October 3, 2006)
  
  
       “Danny was a BIG man whose motion ideas escaped the confinement of a small floor by moving to tables and beds, chairs and barrels. I still see him flying through the air to some unlikely landing place. So I’ll remember him as a MOVER who could not be constrained. He dared to leap for the moon and hang on a star, making them a part of HIS world.”  —Ruth Grauert
  
  

  
  Obituary:
  
  

        Danial Shapiro, Accomplished Choreographer
  

  Camille Lefevre, October 4, 2006, Star Tribune, Minneapolis
  

  
  
• Murray Louis Receives the 2006 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival $35,000 Award
       June 18 at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina — see details.
  
  
  
• Nikolais/Louis Legacy Workshops Alumni Week, held July 24–28, 2006, Salt Lake City, Utah, “an astonishing and extraordinary event,” according to attendees.  See the gallery of snapshots and photos.
  
  
  

• Ruth Grauert accepts Martha Hill Award. Award presented by Beverly Blossom.

  Ruth Grauert receives the Martha Hill Award:  On November 28, 2005, Ruth Grauert received the Martha Hill Lifetime Achievement Award, presented at Hunter College in New York City.  See introduction by Beverly Blossom and Ruth’s acceptance at the Award Gala (video right, click arrow to begin).
  
  
  
• Tribute to Murray Louis Concert.  December 17–18, Hunter College Kaye Playhouse. See flyer (PDF document).
  
  
  
• An Evening with Beverly Blossom—Funny, Compassionate, and Wise:  Bernie West Theatre (Baruch College).  At 79, Beverly Blossom returned to New York in a one-woman show that she called “the incomplete lament of an old dancer.”  See New York Times review by Roslyn Sulcas (requires member login, but registration is free).
  
  
  
• Kelly Roth started his study at the Nikolais/Louis Dance Theatre Lab in 1976. He has performed in New York with Sara and Jerry Pearson, Lorry May, Robert Small, Robert Diaz and Thomas Holt. In 1978,

  	From Cafe Mahleria, choreographed by Kelly Roth. The dancers: Noel Brown, Jaime Velilla, and William Griffin. Costumes: Catherine Irving-Conner. Performed April 9, 2005, at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California.

  he was a guest artist with the Paris-based Danse Theatre Susan Buirge at the Berlin Festival. He has also performed on tour with the Murray Louis Dance Company and assisted Mr. Louis in the creation of Suite for Erik (Five Haikus), setting it on former Joffrey Ballet star Gary Chryst and the late Erik Bruhn.
       In 1995, Kelly relocated to Las Vegas to build a dance program for the Community College of Southern Nevada. In addition to his duties as head of the CCSN Dance Program, he choreographs for such organizations as the Las Vegas Civic Ballet and the Desert Dance Theatre. Roth and choreographer Kyla Quintero founded the Dance in the Desert Festival, which began as an opportunity for local choreographers to present their works and is now an annual event that has grown to include artists from throughout the West.
       Kelly Roth & Dancers/Concert Dance Company, has appeared in the Avignon Festival in France, to the International Choreographic Festival in Mexico City, Prague Festival 2000 in the Czech Republic and in frequent engagements in California, Arizona, and Utah. In June 2003, Kelly Roth and company received first prizes for choreography and Best Contemporary Dance Presentation at the Dance Grand Prix Italia in Cesena, Italy. Cited for “high artistic achievement,” Mr. Roth is the recipient of a prestigious Nevada Artist’s Fellowship for 2005.
  
  
  
• Mimi Garrard reflects on her Nikolais heritage:
  
       “Tapping into the Eternal: My Journey with Alwin Nikolais”
  
       Two Film Festivals this summer will screen Mimi Garrard’s videodances:  In June, Omagbitse Suite will be presented at TREEPEOPLE as part of the 2005 Dance On Camera West Festival in Los Angeles and at the Fear No Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.  See MimiGarrardDance.com.
  
  
  
• Helen Kent-Nicoll Update (December 2004)
  
  
  
• Crocodiles of Cuba, an Earthwatch Expedition trip to Cuba (April, 2004)
  
  
  
• On June 8, 2004, Phyllis Lamhut hosted at her home a book signing, honoring Claudia Gitelman and her Liebe Hanya, which is now available in the major book stores.  (See Review.)
  
  
  
• Annelise Mertz (Professor Emerita of Washington University in St. Louis) Wins the 2004 Missouri Arts Award, the State’s Highest
  
  
  
• Wanda Pruska-Wallace (Henry Street Playhouse and NDT 1960–1983, MLDC 1971–1975) and her husband, David Wallace, now operate a resort called Nature’s Paradise on St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Phyllis Lamhut recommends it highly as “a great place, most beautiful.” Wanda offers a 20% discount to the Nikolais-Louis “Family” (mention Bearnstow Journal when you inquire). And Nature’s Paradise has a dance studio available! See their Web site (including pictures of Wanda!) at www.stlucianaturesparadise.com.
  
  
  
• Greetings from Suzie McDermaid Freidel (and Squire and “Puck”) from Glenlyon Vindyards & Winery.  (See also www.glenlyonwinery.com.)
  
  
  
• The Nikolais Legacy Forum, held at Hunter College, Oct. 10–12, was a tremendous success.  More on the Legacy Forum.
  
  
  
• Knocked Knees, New York, and Nik — a memoir by Susan P. Lloyd (October 2003)
  
  
  
• Reflections on a Reunion.  On March 22, 2003, Nikolais-Louis alumni gathered at the home of Mimi Garrard and Jimmy Seawright to commemorate the life to Frankie Garcia, who died in December, and the tenth anniversary of Alwin Nikolais’ death.  See photos from that event by Norman Ader & Peter Koletzke and by Jimmy Seawright.
  
  
  
• It Rained in the Sahara, a trip to Morocco (February 2003)
  
  
  
• Susan Buirge Update (February 2003)
  
  
  
• Pantanal Team VI, a trip to Brazil’s Pantanal (April, 2002)