Later, he was introduced to dance teacher Lester Horton. Horton had a dance school in Hollywood and his style was more straightforward and what Ailey was looking for. When Ailey saw a school performance of fellow Jefferson High School student and Horton protégé, Carmen de Lavallade, he signed on with Horton. Lester Horton welcomed him to his company as part of the chorus. Soon after, Alvin had choreographed his first formal concert dance, Afternoon Blues, set to music from the Broadway show, On The Town.
He performed with the company in vaudeville throughout the United States and in concerts in England and the Orient. During an extended tour of the Far East, his interest in oriental dance was aroused, and he began studies with a Japanese teacher. In 1927, he and Doris Humphrey left Denishawn in protest against the romanticism of the repertory, and together they established a company and a school devoted to exploring a new aesthetic. It is the work of the company they founded and that of their contemporaries, Martha Graham and Hanya Holm that has come to be known as modern dance. Miss Humphrey and Mr. Weidman established new principles of technique, and choreographed many works together.
He had a screen test by M-G-M, he appeared in the film Kiss Me Kate (1953). Since Kiss Me Kate was a highly original dance number, this led him to his first job as a choreographer. It was the Broadway hit directed by Jerome Robbins, The Pajama Game (1954). A little while later he met Gwen Verdon, who was a talented dancer. The two collaborated on several hit shows such as, Damn Yankee (1955, film 1958), New Girl in Town (1957), and Redhead (1959).
Mr. Horton’s ability to translate ethnic dances into commercially acceptable formats led him to choreographing musical numbers for films from the 1940s through the early 1950s. In order to finance his school, Horton choreographed a number of early Hollywood musicals, beginning with Moonlight in Havana (1942); with the most notable being Arthur Lubin's The Phantom of the Opera (1943). Although based in the West Coast, Horton’s dance techniques also traveled to New York. Modern Jazz dance and Native American dance were the two main styles of dance that Horton incorporated into his very own style of dance (the Horton Technique), which was made popular by one of his students Alvin Ailey. This style of dance consists of a whole body approach to dance that includes flexibility, strength, coordination and body awareness; this is also the main type of dance that we do in class.
A. Brief biography (minimum one paragraph of text or audio). Include answers to the following questions: Michael Kors was born on August 9, 1959, on Long Island, New York. Michael Kors started his public life as a child actor—so it probably didn’t surprise those who knew him best when he magnified his fame as a designer by becoming a regular on Project Runway, the reality TV show, in 2004. Kors came early to his vocation.
It was introduced to the theater going public at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York when the "Ziegfeld Follies," staged a dance act that featured the Charleston. Ned Wayburn was the choreographer, and Sizzle and Blake introduced a young African-American boy to Wayburn. The boy demonstrated what was to be the signature step of the Charleston. Wayburn supposedly choreographed a few more steps and Sissle and Blake wrote the songs ... it was an immediate hit. In that same year a stage play by the name of "Liza" had introduced the dance done by Rufus Greenlee and Maude Russell but went un-noticed.
In 1931 she opened a Wigman school in New York City, which became the Hanya Holm Studio in 1936. In addition to works for her own company, she choreographed musicals such as My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960). Hanya Holm made her own unique technique. Many other dancers used her technique. Some of these dancers are; Alwin Nikolais, Mary Anthony, and Don Redlich.
French producers came to New York looking to cast an all-black musical revue in Paris. They saw Josephine performing at the Plantation club and offered her a part in their production La Revue Negré. In 1925 she went to Paris to appear in in the show. The show opened on October 2, 1925 in Paris at the Théâtre Champs-Elysées. Josephine had two numbers in La Revue Negré.
Menken and his wife, Janis, a former professional ballet dancer, reside in upstate New York with their two young children, Anna and Nora. Alan considers his greatest achievement and deepest satisfaction to be his enduring marriage to the love of his life, Janis and their two wonderful daughters. In 2010 he worked with lyricist Glenn Slater to create a cross between medieval music and 1960s folk rock on "Tangled". He also teamed with Glenn Slater to compose the music for Broadway s Sister Act
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) Norman Rockwell was best known for his paintings that depicted stories of America and its cultural values through a series of people and small town life in the early to mid 20th century. At the age of 14, Rockwell dropped out of high school to go study art at Arts Students League. By the age of 19, Rockwell attained the chief illustrator for Boys Life magazine position and would hold that position for the next fifty years. Rockwell also worked for The Saturday Evening Post and about 150 other companies producing over 4000 works of art. Rockwell did travel to Paris in 1923 to study modern art but it was his root original style that everyone appreciated the most.