Lucas Hoving (September 5, 1912 – January 5, 2000) was a modern dancer, choreographer and teacher most famous for the roles he created as an original member of the
José Limón
José Arcadio Limón (January 12, 1908 – December 2, 1972) was a dancer and choreographer from Mexico and who developed what is now known as 'Limón technique'. In the 1940s, he founded the José Limón Dance Company (now the Limón Dan ...
Dance Company. Hoving performed opposite Limón in several of the company's best known works, including "The Moor's Pavane" (1949), "The Traitor" (1954), and "Emperor Jones" (1956). He also danced in works by seminal modern dance figures
Kurt Jooss
Kurt Jooss (12 January 1901 – 22 May 1979)[Kurt Jooss]
Internationales Biographisches Archi ...
,
Martha Graham
Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide.
Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She wa ...
,
Agnes De Mille
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Early years
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMill ...
,
Doris Humphrey
Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 – December 29, 1958) was an American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second gen ...
, and
Helen Tamiris
Helen Tamiris (born Helen Becker; April 24, 1905 – August 4, 1966) was an American choreographer, modern dancer, and teacher.
Biography
Tamiris was born in New York City on April 23, 1902. She adopted Tamiris, her stage name, from a fragment ...
before forming his own company in 1961.
Early life
Born Lucas Philippus Hovinga in Groningen, the Netherlands, Hoving studied dance with
Florrie Rodrigo and
Yvonne Georgi
Yvonne Georgi (29 October 1903 – 25 January 1975) was a German dancer, choreographer and ballet mistress. She was known for her comedic talents and her extraordinary jumping ability. In her roles as a dancer, choreographer, and ballet mistres ...
in Amsterdam before earning a scholarship to the Jooss School in Dartington, England. Among his roles with the Jooss Ballet was that of the Standard Bearer in the company's "
The Green Table
''The Green Table'' is a ballet by the German choreographer Kurt Jooss. His most popular work, it depicts the futility of peace negotiations of the 1930s. It was the first work to be fully notated using kinetography Laban (Labanotation). It is in ...
." On a tour to New York with the Jooss Company in 1941, he studied at the Martha Graham School. When the Jooss Company disbanded at the onset of World War II, Hoving was invited to join the Graham Company, appearing in Graham's tribute to Emily Dickinson, "Letter to the World", in late 1941.
After appearing on Broadway in 1942 in Catherine Littlefield's "Kiss for Cinderella," Hoving joined the Dutch Armed Forces in exile. He took part in the European campaign as a wireless operator/ interpreter. In 1946 Hoving danced in the Arthur J. Rank film, "
London Town" choreographed by
Agnes de Mille
Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer.
Early years
Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMill ...
, who subsequently invited Hoving back to the U.S. to dance in her Broadway production of "Rape of Lucretia." Back in New York, Hoving toured a nightclub act with wife Lavina Nielsen, a native of St. Louis, MO, whom he met at the Jooss School and married in 1943. He and Neilson appeared together in several Broadway productions as well as works by the José Limón Company throughout the 1950s.
Hoving Partners with Limón
Hoving first met José Limón in 1946 in a New York ballet class. Limón invited Hoving to join his newly created company the following year. Blonde, lean, and lyrical in his movement, Hoving made a fitting foil for the dark haired, muscular Limón. But the duet's performance appeal transcended the men's physical dynamic. Dance scholar/ critic Ann Murphy notes:
...these two men expanded the terrain of modern dance by giving unprecedented richness not only to male expression but to men in relationship to one another. They ignored the roles men had so often played in dance as symbols of virility or handsome scenery, and created instead a fictive world of flawed psychological men, passionately and often tragically engaged in the complex drama of living.
According to Murphy, Hoving and Limón's portrayal of men's relationships on the dance stage is credited with laying the groundwork for later male dance collaborations, including that of
Bill T. Jones and
Arnie Zane
Arnie Zane (September 26, 1948 – March 30, 1988) was an American photographer, choreographer, and dancer. He is best known as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Early years
The second so ...
in the 1980s.
Teaching and choreography
In 1961 Hoving started his own dance company which toured throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Among the best known works he created for the company is "Icarus," which has been revived by the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate a ...
and the Jooss Company among others. He also choreographed for companies including Bat-Dor of Israel, Kulberg Balletten of Sweden, Grand Ballet Canadiennes of Canada, Ballet Nacional of Mexico, and the Ailey company.
[Hoving, Lucas. Professional Resume.] In 1971 Hoving was invited by the Dutch government to return to the Netherlands. There he assumed the position of Director of the Rotterdam Dansacademie, and later Supervisor of Dance Education for the Dutch Government.
For the next two decades Hoving traveled around the world conducting teaching residencies and workshops for institutions including
Juilliard
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 elit ...
, Germany's
Folkwang Hochschule
The Folkwang University of the Arts is a university for music, theater, dance, design, and academic studies, located in four German cities of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 1927, its traditional main location has been in the former Werden Abbey in E ...
,
Jacob's Pillow
Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives a ...
Dance Festival, and the
American Dance Festival
The American Dance Festival (ADF) under the direction of Executive Director Jodee Nimerichter hosts its main summer dance courses including Summer Dance Intensive, Pre-Professional Dance Intensive, and the Dance Professional Workshops. It also hos ...
. In 1981 Hoving moved to San Francisco, California, where he formed the Lucas Hoving Performance Group. He started performing again in 1984 with the creation of an autobiographical monologue called "Growing up in Public", conceived and directed by Hoving's longtime friend and colleague
Remy Charlip
Remy or Rémy may refer to:
Places
* Remy River, a tributary of rivière du Gouffre in Saint-Urbain, Quebec, Canada
* Rémy, a French commune in Pas-de-Calais
* Remy, Oise, northern France
* Remy, Oklahoma, USA
* 14683 Remy, an asteroid
* Po ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoving, Lucas
1912 births
2000 deaths
Dutch male dancers
Dutch choreographers
Modern dancers
People from Groningen (city)