FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Harriet & Charles Luckman
Fine Arts Complex
Contact: Diane Turner
Phone: (323) 343-6616
Fax: (323) 343-6423
Date: April 16, 1997
LEWITZKY DANCE COMPANY FAREWELL APPEARANCE & GALA AT LUCKMAN THEATRE ON MAY 17
Four Women in Time, Nos Duraturi and a Special Tribute to Bella are Featured
The farewell tribute to Bella Lewitzky, one of the West Coast's leaders in modern dance, and the final public performance by the Lewitzky Dance Company take place at Cal State L.A.'s Luckman Theatre on Saturday, May 17, 1997 at 7 p.m.
Single ticket prices are $37 and $30. Gala tickets, which are $250 per person, include premier performance seating, Lewitzky Dance Company memorabilia and an event with entertainment and a silent auction. Tickets can be ordered by phone at (310) 985-7000 or (310) 985-7097 by TDD; by fax at (310) 985-7023; or by mail from The Carpenter Performing Arts Center Box Office, 6200 Atherton Street, Long Beach, CA 90815-4500.
Limitless strength and flexibility of the dancers and their repertoire have earned founder Bella Lewitzky an international reputation as a trailblazer in modern dance. Her company is known for being explosive, evocative, disciplined and unconventional.
The repertoire for the farewell performance includes Bella's most recently commissioned work Four Women in Time, and Nos Duraturi, which debuted at the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. There will also be a special tribute to Bella which will include early film footage of her dancing. Four Women in Time, choreographed in 1996 and inspired by Judy Chicago's controversial exhibition The Dinner Party, portrays four women in history. Nos Duraturi, choreographed to Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, reveals humanity's need to group together in times of threat and disorientation as well as humanity's capacity to join together for survival.
Bella Lewitzky has become one of the West Coast's leading representatives of modern dance and has been changing the landscape of her chosen art form for more than five decades, first as a riveting dancer of legendary power and excitement, and now as a choreographer of sensitivity, intelligence and inventiveness. Lewitzky's choreography extends beyond dance to encompass drama, discipline, attitude, relationships and rituals. Her dancers "create drama in space...they appeal always vehemently and often poignantly," says the Los Angeles Times.
The Lewitzky Dance Company is a chamber-size ensemble of solo-caliber artists devoted to maintaining the Lewitzky repertoire, choreographing new works, and developing existing and new audiences for dance through touring, workshops, and demonstrations. The company's versatility appears in all its facets: in its concerts; in its repertoire, conventional to experimental; and in its sound, classical to electronic -- all reflecting the basic Lewitzky philosophy that art is an on-going process, and that the only constant is change.
Gala monies will go to raise $250,000 to document Lewitzky's works, which will be archived in the Library of Congress and in the New York Public Library Dance Collection and the University of Southern California.
The Gala follows the performance in the nearby Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, where three decades of Lewitzky, photos, costumes and memorabilia will be exhibited.
The Lewitzky Company Farewell Gala Honorary Committee, co-chaired by Cyd Charisse, Tony Martin, Anjelica Huston and Robert Graham, includes public figures, former company members and international artists whom Lewitzky has known, and many of whom are expected to attend.
In this unprecedented Southern California tribute to one of the dance world's "greats," 11 performing arts venues have also come together, offering financial backing and services to present the farewell performance and gala. They are the Alex Theatre, Cal Tech, California Plaza Presents, the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, the Harriet & Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex, the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Occidental College, Pepperdine University, South Bay Center for the Arts and UCLA Center for the Performing Arts.
Luckman Theatre, which is on the campus of Cal State L.A., was chosen as the farewell venue because Lewitzky's company held its first performance on the campus in April, 1966. She wanted the farewell performance to complete the cycle of its existence at the same location as its birth.
The Luckman at Cal State L.A. is located at the junction of the San Bernardino (I-10) and Long Beach (I-710) freeways.