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Bertram Ross
Bertram Ross (November 14, 1920 – April 20, 2003) was an American dancer best known for his work with the Martha Graham Dance Company, with which he performed for two decades. He was Martha Graham’s longtime dance partner and the originator of male roles in most of her major ballets from the 1950s and 1960s, including Adam in Embattled Garden, and both Agamemnon and Orestes in Clytemnestra. After leaving Graham's company, Ross taught, choreographed and formed his own dance company. In later life, he toured in a cabaret duo with his real life partner, the composer and pianist John Wallowitch. Early life Ross was born Bertram Ross Prensky in Brooklyn, New York. He was introduced to the performing arts at an early age. At the urging of his mother, he studied piano, but initially was more interested in painting. He attended Oberlin College, then spent World War II as a mapmaker for the Army. In 1947, he returned to New York to continue painting studies at the Art Students Lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads that served the city. Initially , it was expanded to 600 acres (2.4 km²) in 1905, but reduced to 461 acres (1.9 km²) in 1912, when a portion was sold to the neighboring Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Many entertainment figures of the early twentieth century, including the Russian-born Sergei Rachmaninoff, were buried here. The cemetery has a special section for members of the Actors' Fund of America and the National Vaudeville Association, some of whom died in abject poverty. The cemetery contains four Commonwealth war graves, of three Canadian Army soldiers of World War I and a repatriated American Royal Air Force airman of World War II. As of December 2021, eight Major League Baseball players are buried here, including Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Lou Gehrig. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Journey (ballet)
''Night Journey'' is a Martha Graham ballet performed to music by William Schuman with costumes designed by Graham and a set by Isamu Noguchi. Commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation of the Library of Congress, the work premiered on May 3, 1947, at Cambridge High School in Boston, Massachusetts. ''Night Journey'' is the third of Graham's dances derived from Greek mythology, following ''Cave of the Heart'' and '' Errand into the Maze''. Theme, synopsis and original cast Graham based the 30-minute-long ballet on a fragment of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Original program notes explain "the action takes place in Jocasta's heart at the instant when she recognizes the ultimate terms of her destiny." The original cast members were Graham in the role of Queen Jocasta and Erick Hawkins as King Oedipus. Mark Ryder as the blind Seer (Tiresias) was accompanied by the Daughters of the Night (Furies), a chorus of six women: Pearl Lang, Yuriko, Ethel Winter, Helen McGehee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elite drama, music, and dance schools in the world. History Early years: 1905-1946 In 1905, the Institute of Musical Art, Juilliard's predecessor institution, was founded by Frank Damrosch, the godson of Franz Liszt and head of music education for New York City's public schools, on the premise that the United States did not have a premier music school and too many students were going to Europe to study music. In 1919, a wealthy textile merchant named Augustus Juilliard died and left the school in his will the largest single bequest for the advancement of music at that time. In 1968, the school's name was changed from the Juilliard School of Music to The Juilliard School to reflect its broadened mission to educate musicians, directors, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Technique
Graham technique is a modern dance movement style and pedagogy created by American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham (1894–1991). Graham technique has been called the "cornerstone" of American modern dance, and has been taught worldwide. It is widely regarded as the first codified modern dance technique, and strongly influenced the later techniques of Merce Cunningham, Lester Horton, and Paul Taylor. Graham technique is based on the opposition between contraction and release, a concept based on the breathing cycle which has become a "trademark" of modern dance forms. Its other dominant principle is the "spiraling" of the torso around the axis of the spine. Graham technique is known for its unique dramatic and expressive qualities and distinctive floorwork; dance critic Anna Kisselgoff described it as "powerful, dynamic, jagged and filled with tension". The phrase "Graham technique" was registered as a trademark before Graham's death, and was the subject of a tradema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Protas
Ron Protas is the former Associate Director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and heir of modern dance choreographer Martha Graham. Agnes de Mille writes in ''Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham'' that in the late 1960s Protas, who had been a law student at Columbia University, became introduced to the Martha Graham Dance Company. De Mille writes that Protas was not well liked by company members, as he was not a dancer and had no reason to be involved with the company. Initially, Graham did not like Protas. But when Graham's health began to fail, as a result of her alcoholism and depression over having to retire from her performing career, Protas stepped in and nursed Graham back to health. De Mille writes that over the next several years the influence of Protas grew, eventually he and Graham restructured the company entirely. According to de Mille, Protas soon embarked on a campaign to copyright the Martha Graham Dance Technique: "Now, under the guidance o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Hinkson
Mary De Haven Hinkson (March 16, 1925 – November 26, 2014) was an African American dancer and choreographer known for breaking racial boundaries throughout her dance career in both modern and ballet techniques. She is best known for her work as a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Personal life Hinkson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925 to a mother who worked as a public school teacher and a father who was a physician and was the first African American head of an army hospital. Hinkson studied Dalcroze technique in a high school eurythmics class, as well as Native American dance forms at summer camp. Due to not being taken seriously as a living room dancer, she did not receive formal dance training until enrolling at the University of Wisconsin, where she eventually studied with Margaret H'Doubler. During her summers at camp, she was most excited to be taught by Doris Haywood and was truly set on fire for dance. Despite the fact that she “didn't even k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Dance Guild
The American Dance Guild (A.D.G.) was founded in 1956, as the Dance Teachers' Guild by twelve dance teachers in New York City to promote the art of dance in the United States by educating the American public and by maintaining standards of teaching. History After and annual conference on teaching children creatively, 12 dance teachers felt the event should occur more than once a year. The conference had provided teachers with a way to share ideas, problems and resources. The group began meeting, and discussed the need to develop standards for teaching modern dance and ballet, and the need to educate the public about dance. The guild grew, as chapters were established in Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, and Brooklyn in New York, and soon moving on to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As the Guild grew it welcomed dance professionals other than teachers, including performers, choreographers, accompanists, therapists, writers, historians, and critics. Dance Scope In 1965, the maga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Hammid
Alexandr Hackenschmied, born Alexander Siegfried George Hackenschmied, known later as Alexander Hammid (17 December 1907, Linz – 26 July 2004, New York City) was a Czech-American photographer, film director, cinematographer and film editor. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 and became involved in American avant-garde cinema. He is best known for three films: ''Crisis'' (1939), ''Meshes of the Afternoon'' (1943) and '' To Be Alive!'' (1964). He made ''Meshes of the Afternoon'' with Maya Deren, to whom he was married from 1942 to 1947. His second marriage was to the photographer Hella Heyman, who had also collaborated with Hammid and Deren on several films. He won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for ''To Be Alive!'' (1964), which he co-directed with Francis Thompson. Career in Czechoslovakia and the U.S. Born in Linz, Austria-Hungary to the son of a school-teacher, he changed his name to Alexander Hammid when he became a citizen of the United S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers". The open, slowly changing harmonies in much of his music are typical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. He is best known for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately accessible style often referred to as "populist" and which the composer labeled his "vernacular" style. Works in this vein include the ballets ''Appalachian Spring'', ''Billy the Kid'' and ''Rodeo'', his ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' and Third Symphony. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres, including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores. After some initial studies with composer Rubin Goldmark, Coplan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuriko (dancer)
Yuriko Kikuchi (née Amemiya, February 2, 1920 – March 8, 2022), known to audiences by her stage name Yuriko, was an American dancer and choreographer who was best known for her work with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Early life and career Yuriko Amemiya was born to Chiyo (Furuya) Amemiya and Morishige Amemiya in San Jose, California in 1920, but her mother sent her to Japan in 1923 in order to escape an influenza epidemic in the United States that killed her father and sisters. At age six, she returned to California but was later left in Japan during a 1929 visit after her mother's second marriage ended. She began her dance training with Konami Ishii in Tokyo, and danced with the Konami Ishii Dance Company from 1930 to 1937. In 1937, Yuriko returned to the United States and joined Dorothy Lyndall's Junior Dance Company in Los Angeles. Internment From 1941 to 1943, due to the signing of Executive Order 9066, Yuriko was interned along with other Japanese Americans at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Hodes
Stuart Hodes (born November 27, 1924) is an American dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, dance administrator and author. He was Martha Graham's partner, danced on Broadway, in TV, film, in recitals, and with his own troupe. His choreography has appeared on the Boston Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Harkness Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and other troupes. He taught at the Martha Graham School, Neighborhood Playhouse, NYC High School of Performing Arts, headed dance at NYU School of the Arts and Borough of Manhattan Community College. He was Dance Associate for the NY State Council on the Arts, dance panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, president of the National Association of Schools of Dance, and a member of the First American Dance Study Team to China in 1980, returning in 1992 to teach the Guangzhou modern dance troupe. Early life Stuart Hodes Gescheidt was born in New York City in November 1924 and grew up in Flushing, Miami Beach, and Sheepshead B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WQED (TV)
WQED (channel 13) is a PBS member television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned by WQED Multimedia, it is sister to public radio station WQED-FM (89.3). The two outlets share studios on Fifth Avenue near the Carnegie Mellon University campus and transmitter facilities near the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, both in the city's Oakland section. Established on April 1, 1954, WQED was the first community-sponsored television station in the U.S. and the country's fifth public television station. It was the first station to telecast classes to elementary school classrooms when Pittsburgh launched its Metropolitan School Service in 1955. The station has been the flagship for the shows ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'', ''Once Upon A Classic'', '' Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'' (a co-production with Boston's WGBH-TV; filmed in New York City), and '' Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood'' (whose live-action scenes are filmed in Pittsburgh). History A pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
