LUCAS HOVING: THE CIRCLE THAT GOES AROUND by Jacques J. Burgering submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the American University in Partial Fullfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Dance

Dean 1J.th.i' College 2($' Date ~ ~~

1995 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 ,AMERICAN UNIVERSITY UBRARY~i UMI Number: 1472220

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JACQUES J. BURGERING

1995

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DEDICATED to

My parents, Jan Burgering and Ria Burgering-van Haasteren, and to our Creator. LUCAS HOVING:

THE CIRCLE THAT GOES AROUND

Biography of a Dutch-American Dancer BY

Jacques J. Burgering

ABSTRACT

Lucas Hoving was a major force in the development of

European and American modern dance after World War II. This work contains a biographical description in Lucas Hoving's efforts to give dance, and modern dance in particular, a more humanistic content and image.

Lucas Hoving was the first man after Jose Limon to enter the Jose Limon Dance Company in 1948. This gave Limon the opportunity to develop his choreography through the use of opposite and complementary characters. The two men developed a relationship on stage unusual in the history of contemporary dance. Subconsciously, through his dancing, Lucas Hoving made a major contribution to the emancipation of the male dancer.

Through his sincerity, his open mind, his child-like approach to life and dance, Lucas Hoving was able to create roles reflecting the inner struggles of human beings on stage; that happened in his own performance, and through the dancers on whom he set his choreography. In his teaching, Lucas Hoving

iii managed to take his students by the hand, and guide them through their exploration of movement. He was with them when searching for and discovering freedom in movement, and when trying to create their own voice, their own movement vocabulary.

His greatness resides in his ability to approach and reach modern dance students, colleagues and audiences on a human level. He succeeded in exchanging the deeper experiences every human being has through movement, and encouraging people to develop a real voice of their own.

Because Lucas Roving's roots lay in The Netherlands, and his growth as a mature artist and inspiring teacher took place in the United States of America, Lucas Hoving was able to integrate the best of two worlds in a language of his own.

Throughout his long career, touring, performing and teaching all over the world Lucas Hoving kept fertilizing dance worlds on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thinking about writing a thesis is one thing, executing the

necessary work involved is something else. There is even a

major difference in doing the research, and organizing your

findings on paper. For some people in my environment, my work

on this extensive research and writing has become part of

their lives as well. They shared with me the many moments of despair, joy, tension, and anxiety. They also tried to keep up

with the phases of this writing process, what I normally would

try to express in movement. For all of them, but for me in

particular, writing this thesis was a coming together of two

worlds: the past as a Dutch academic, a social-economic

historian, and the present, as an "American" modern dancer.

These are the many people to whom I owe gratitude and for whom

I have deep respect.

Dr. Naima Prevots, for her seemingly never ending energy,

academic merit and insights in dance, combined with a

continuous effort to encourage, guide and question the

paths I took, in an effort to let me find my own way.

Maryse Jacobs - for the love and life in dance we share, the

ideas, the dialogue, the brainstorms, the times she

iv functioned as a sounding board, and for the patience of living together in a "thesis-atmosphere".

Jan Burgering and Ria Burgering-Van Haasteren - for giving me life, love and understanding, forever reminding me of my roots.

Lucas Hoving - for his humor, his time and attention, for being an enlightening and inspiring grandfather in modern dance, for his coaching in my role as "The Son", in Doris Humphrey' Ruins and Visions.

Cheryl Yonker - for sharing all her insights in the life of Lucas Hoving over the past ten years, as a studnet, dancer and caretaker.

Ann Murphy - for her encouragement in creative writing and the exchange of thoughts about experiences with Lucas Hoving.

Dola de Jong - for her enthusiasm in sharing her insights as a Dutch woman, dancer, writer, and life-time friend of Lucas Hoving.

Carla Maxwell - for sharing her thoughts, insights, knowledge and experience in dance and with Lucas Hoving.

v Julius Petty - for being a friend, sharing his printer and

paper.

Kathy Ortiz - for being a friend, and giving me a computer to write, re-write, re-write, correct and finish this thesis.

Joke van de Krol - for showing me "the way", to dance.

Chris Daanen - for everlasting comraderie.

Jan Vesters - for warmth and intellectual support.

Karin Sorbi - for sharing her journey through dance and life.

Tjitske Broersma - for being.my "Godmother" in dance.

And ... to all the dancers with whom I could share my dancing, my training, performances, and thoughts about Lucas Hoving, especially Andree Gingras and Beryl Henzy.

vi CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iv

CHAPTER

I. DISCOVERY OF THE DANCE ...... 1

II. THE BIG CITY: AMSTERDAM ...... 8

III. JOOSS ...... 28

IV. A DANCER AT WAR ...... 53

V. LUCAS HOVING AND JOSE LIMON. THE BEGINNING: 1948-1949...... 69 VI. CONTINUING COLLABORATION, 1950-1957. YEARS OF SELF EXPRESSION THROUGH PERFORMANCE. 84 VII. NEW DIRECTIONS, 1957-1971. FINDING A PATH OF HIS OWN...... 99 VIII. THE TEACHING OF LUCAS HOVING. FROM 'EXTRA EARNINGS' TO FIRST PASSION...... 118

IX. EPILOGUE: THE 'COME-BACK KID' ...... 140 x. LUCAS HOVING: A LIFE OF DANCE ...... 152 APPENDIX A: ARCHIVES CONSULTED...... 157 APPENDIX B: CHOREOCHRONICLE LUCAS HOVING...... 158 APPENDIX C: CHRONOLOGY FOR LUCAS HOVING...... 167

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 179 DUTCH BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 203

vii CHAPTER I

DISCOVERY OF THE DANCE

On September 5, 1912 a boy was born in the City of

Groningen, The Netherlands, by the name of Lucas Philippus

Hovinga. 1 In the United States, later in his life, when people

were not able to pronounce his name, it would be corrupted

into Lucas Hoving. Lucas' parents, Derk Hovinga and Mina van

Sluis called him Lou. His father, a farmer's son, had become

112 a butcher "because of the depression , with his shop in the

front part of their house in the Steentilstraat. 3 In the same

house, Lucas' mother, the daughter of a sea-captain, ran a

boarding facility for around six students. 4

Lucas' mother became crippled5 shortly after he was born

1 Ann Murphy, "From Butcher Shop to Broadway and Beyond." San Francisco, unpublished. Photocopied.

2 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1-3 1995, in his temporary housing with the Sufis, 248 Laurel Place, San Rafael, California.

3 In his heart, his father always stayed a farmer. Later in his life he bought a farm, and that creased enormous conflict with his mother. The house in the Steentilstraat became a school for music and movement after they had left. Interview by author and Maryse J.F. Jacobs with Lucas Hoving. June 3-8 1992, San Francisco at 78 Ney Street.

4 The city of Groningen has an ancient university, dating back to the sixteenth century.

5 According to Ann Murphy, possibly through rheumatoid arthritis. Remark in letter to author, May 1995.

1 2

(evil tongues said he was the reason) 6 In later years Lucas

would often help her get out of bed and get dressed. He would

put on her stockings, lace her shoes and bring her to her

chair in the kitchen. She was there all day, together with her

daughter Riek and servants, preparing meals for their six

boarders, and their two dogs, a German sheppard and a small

brown dog. Around noon there would be a hot meal, and around

six p.m. there would be buttered sandwiches with slices of ham

or cheese. Lucas' mother had a charwoman to clean the house.

Sometimes Lucas' sister, who was six years older, would help

out; she had left school at twelve to help her father in the

butcher shop. 7

The family was considered to be part of the "burgerij",

11 8 the petit-bourgeoisie" , and they were from a non-practising

Protestant background. 9 At the age of three, Lucas discovered

a piano in the room of one of the boarders. When the student

heard Lucas trying to play on his piano, he told Lucas' father

6 Remy Charlip, "Growing Up in Public. The making of an autobiographical dance for Lucas Hoving/conceived and directed by Remy Charlip." Contact Quarterly, Vol .13 nr. 3 (Spring/Summer 1988), p.35.

7 Interviews with Lucas Hoving, June 1992/May 1995.

8 Lucas always considered himself to come from a lower middle class background. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

9 At that age, he was already a very tolerant and exploring child. He played "catholic church" with two of his friends, Evert Zeeven, son of a real estate agent, who became a well known psychic medium, and Albert Roodenburg, who became a priest. Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. 3

to let him take piano lessons. The boarder left, and took his

piano with him. Lucas' parents bought him a piano which they

stationed in their living room, under the portrait of his

drowned seafaring grandfather. At age six Lucas began piano

lessons once a week with George Ahrends, the oboist of the

Groningse Symphonie Orkest (Symphony Orchestra of Groningen)

who played the piano as well; soon he was to study twice a

week. Lucas would run to his piano teacher's house with

lambchops or steak wrapped in a brown piece of paper. Luckily

10 for his father, his teacher liked steaks , and so the family

was able to afford the lessons.

The piano was in the living room, separated from the

butcher shop by a wide glass wall, covered with a curtain. One

day a customer heard Lucas playing, and asked his father if

she could talk with Lucas. She asked him if he would like to

have a job as a piano player. He said yes and became the

youngest accompanist for classes of "Eclecta", a club11 for

rhythmical gymnastics.

After about a year the director of the club left, and a

new director came in, Neel Kuiper, who transformed the club

into a school of modern dance. That changed Lucas' life. Born

in Groningen, Kuiper had studied in Germany with the great

10 "Growing Up in Public", p. 35.

11 A club in The Netherlands was a group of people who performed sports, singing or whatever social activity on a regular basis. During the years before World War II, they were strictly organized according to religion or political beliefs. The members paid a, normally small, monthly fee to contribute in the expenses. 4

choreographers and teachers, Mary Wigman, Kurt Jooss and

Rudolf von Laban. Through Neel Kuiper's classes Lucas had his

first experience with modern dance. At home, after playing for

her classes up to nine times a week, he would practice all the

exercises she had done in class, up and down the long hallway

of his parents' house.

Several months after Neel Kuiper had started teaching in

Groningen, Lucas asked her, during one of the ten minute

breaks he had in between classes, "'can't you do one of these

beautiful exercises again. ' Not knowing which one I meant, she

asked me which one it was, and I showed her my favorite

movement sequence. " 12 She was surprised and pleased, but

never offered that he take classes with her.

Lucas Hoving, it turned out, loved to dance; "ever since

I was eight years old, when the organ grinder came down our

street ... I'd rush out of the house ... I picked up some wood

shavings ... my wig... and a tin cigar box with buttons in

it ... my tambourine, and I just danced and people watched ...

'Strange boy, isn't he?"' 13 On other occasions, he would go

up to one of the backrooms on the second floor. That room had

a big window, looking out on a hotel for workers. Around six

p.m. these people would come home, and Lucas would start his

performance; he would tear down the curtain and run around

12 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

13 "Growing Up in Public", p.38. 5

with his fluttering piece of fabric, dancing out his soul. 14

By the age of nine he was choreographing his own school shows.

Shortly before he was twelve, he went to the Hoogere

Burger School (H.B.S.), which prepared adolescents for the

university. 15 There he met a Jewish girl named Hennie Vles,

with whom he started a performance group. Hennie and Lucas

were the "principal dancers" 16 and their friends

participated as dancers, actresses and performers. Together

with Hennie, Lucas took tap classes with a German teacher,

Frida von Bruggen. At thirteen, they did their own

choreography for paid performances at town events, which were

similar to vaudeville productions. The two young people

rehearsed at Hennie' s house, a hotel next to the Beurs

(Bourse), at the Vismarkt in Groningen. Lucas enjoyed

rehearsing there because of the "ontbijtkoek" 17 and because

14 Ever since he had been six and one of the Dwarfs in a Snow White production, getting to carry off the leading lady, he knew, walking home with his father, that "everybody could see I'd had this big experience ... I was hooked". Ibid.

15 At that time, only children from the bourgeois class could afford to go.

16 Hennie Vles even danced on "Spitzen", according to Lucas. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. Lucas' life-time friend Dola de Jong, in an interview with the author, used the expression "dancing on her toes" but it is not clear if the same type of dancing was meant. Interview with Dola de Jong, December 3 1994, New York.

17 "Ontbij tkoek", is a typical Dutch kind of cake, made out of butter, rye-flower, candy-sugar, herbs and spices (cinnamon, white pepper), often eaten at tea-time as a snack. It tasted best when served with a lot of real butter, as Rennie's mother did. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. This information was confirmed in a telephone conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Jan Burgering, November 6 6

he was glad he could get away from home, where his mother's

illness filled their house. One night his mother, who was more

easy going about his dancing, pulled his father to one of

Lucas' performances at the fair. He never said a word about

what he had seen.

Soon he and Hennie Vles began to get offers to perform

in nightclubs. Rennie's mother objected wanting to "protect

her daughter's morals" 18 and so Lucas found a new partner,

Nettie Hart.

It was during these years Lucas saw Harald Kreutzberg

perform in Groningen, an experience which would make a lasting

impression on him. "The only thing I saw was a bold head and

a huge ass ... , because he came in with his back to the

audience. That night I saw a whole solo program of his', and

every time he was a different person. " 19

During his second year in the H.B.S. Lucas wasn't doing

well. Despite his father's efforts to keep him from dancing,

20 even locking him up in his room to study , he was failing.

Although his parents said he could repeat the year, (which was

quite unusual at a time when parents would take their children

out of school by the age of twelve to work), he decided to

1995, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

18 Ibid.

19 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

20 M.E. Schwitter, "Lucas Hovinga's danscarriere. Een Nederlander, die succes had in Amerika." Wereldkroniek, 15 oktober 1955. 7 leave. He took a job as an assistant in a clothing store.

In addition, Lucas accompanied Neel Kuiper' s modern dance classes at the "Eclecta" club. He also accompanied the classes of an opera singer who would come to Groningen once or twice a week. On weekends, Lucas and his friends, a violin player, a percussionist and sometimes a cellist, would strap their instruments and sheet music on their bicycles and play popular German "Schlagers" in country cafes. "I never really enjoyed that. I was never satisfied about my technique, which sounded more like hammering on a table with my finger tips than playing the piano. Besides that, it was a drag cycling back at two or three a. m. the following morning. 1121

By age eighteen, in 1930, Lucas Hoving realized that he wanted to study dance and would have to do so in Amsterdam. He left Groningen and found a job in Amsterdam, leaving his family behind. His father was provincial, and objected to

Lucas going to the "Big City", but his sister Riek supported

Lucas' efforts. There, in Amsterdam, he prepared to start a new life.

21 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. CHAPTER II THE BIG CITY : AMSTERDAM

In Amsterdam Lucas remembers living in a pension

together with a friend from Groningen who worked at the

Bonneterie, a clothing store. They started off their day

together, leaving at the same time for work. 22 He'd told his

23 father he'd found work , but actually he was working as a

"volontair" (apprentice) with Nieuw Engeland, a store for

men's clothing which had branches in the Vijzelstraat, Nieuwe

Dijk and at the Koningsplein, all owned by Mr. Hollenkamp. At

first he ran errands, than he became a salesman, earning

twelve guilders and fifty cents a week. He adjusted easily,

and loved working there because of some of the "weird people

who worked there, especially the female cashier". 24

Not only interested in dance, but in acting as well,

Lucas auditioned for a Dutch movie, and got in. Lucas didn't

remember the title or the contents of the movie, but

... every morning we went out of Amsterdam, to Amsterdam-

22 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 3 1995.

23 His father didn't know Lucas was dancing. One day though, somebody from Groningen arrived at Van Engeland's and asked for Lucas. But Lucas was gone, dancing ina show of Van Sleeswijk. His father was furious when he found out. Inteview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

24 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

8 9

Zuid, or maybe Aalsmeer, where the studio was along a canal. They wanted you early, as early as eight o'clock in the morning, with make-up on. In that spoken movie I worked with Mien Duinman van Twist, a Flemish speaking actress, a woman of her kind unique. I don't remember any other people, not even if the movie was a success. 25

At first the work with Van Engeland and the movie didn't

pay his bills. Lucas began playing the piano again, this time

in a small tap dance studio at the corner of the

Stadhouderskade and the 2e Helmersstraat. It was run by Helen

Morissey, a tapdance and ballroom teacher from England. As

soon as she found out Lucas could dance, she asked him to

dance with ladies of all ages who couldn't find a partner, or

who didn't dance that well. She soon invited him to room in

her house in the attic for free. He ate downstairs with the

Morissey's, not completely to his satisfaction, "since Helen

was always checking if I wouldn't put too much butter on my

bread. 1126

After a couple of years, while taking tap and ballroom

classes with Helen Morissey, he began looking for a modern

dance class. Florrie Rodrigo27 was a modern dance teacher,

the only one who had classes during the evening. At first he

started accompanying her classes, then finally took the

25 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

26 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

27 Florrie Rodrigo, born in 1893 as Flora Juda Rodrigues, (She got her name from the Dutch revue artist Pisuisse. Eva van Schaik, Op Gespannen Voet. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse theaterdans vanaf 1900. Bussum: Unieboek B.V., 1981, p.29. 10

classes himself. 28 He liked her classes because there were

two men studying with her. One was a small Jewish man, Harry

Portijn, and the other was Lou (Loetje/"Small Lou")) van Yck.

The very same day Lucas entered his first class with Florrie,

another man entered the class, Karel Peons; he had been

inspired by a dance performance the night before. 29 Peons was around nineteen years old. Soon Lucas and Karel Peons, moved

from the boarding house to Florrie's big house at the Plantage

Muidergracht, where he got a room for free.

Lucas also started taking ballet classes with Mea

Eggink, a tall woman who used to dance with Igor Schwezoff.

Because of her height, she was a perfect model for Lucas. 30 Florrie's class was very different. With Florrie, the men

didn't wear ballet shoes or unitards, only small cotton

triangles, like tangas or dance belts. The men's legs and

torso were uncovered and the women wore bikinis and short

pleated skirts. This was all part of Rodrigo's heritage from

her teachers Mrs. Sluis-Stikker and Angele Sydoff, both of whom taught the Dalcroze technique. Together with Darja Collin

and Corrie Hartong, Florrie studied four years with Sydoff,

but it was a bad experience: "She was a bad teacher who was

28 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 3 1995.

29 A colleague from the Western Union Telegraph Company had taken him to that performance. Hans Vogel, "Karel Peons ruilt Scapino voor 'luieren' ." Het Parool, May 18 1977.

30 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 11

more interested in the rich than the poor pupils" 31 All three

of Florrie's teachers, like many of their Dutch

contemporaries, were influenced by Rudolph von Laban. He

helped develop the "Ausdruckstanz", German expressionist dance

32 which emphasized communicating feelings through dance ,

usually in abstract and symbolic ways.

Florrie Rodrigo was married to a well-known literary

figure and communist, Cees de Dood. He was also a member of

the city counsel of Amsterdam, where he represented the

communist party, "Communistische Partij Holland", (C.P.H.).

They, and many of their friends, lived in the Jordaan, the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam's inner city; here, she also had

her studio.

Amsterdam, from the nineteenth century on, had been the

capital of worker's unions and leftist political parties.

Coming from Groningen, from a petit-bourgeois family, Lucas

enjoyed the anti-bourgeois environment in which he found himself and was impressed by the idealism and the way these

people lived together. let and Jef Last also belonged to this

circle of creative people, sharing the same political ideals.

Jef was a famous communist writer and life-time friend of the

31 Eva van Schaik, p.30-31 From Mrs. Sluis-Stikker she got three years of training for free, with the promise that whenever she would be teaching, she would teach poor children for free as well, a promise she would keep. In addition, she often would give her poor students free housing in her big house at the Plantage Muidergracht, where she lived from 1928-1934. Florrie Rodrigo is still alive, as of November 1995.

32 Eva van Schaik, p. 25. 12

French philosopher Andre Gide; he left for Spain to fight the

fascists during the Spanish Civil War. 33 His wife let Last-

Verhaar had a children's theater group in the Jordaan, called

De Vrolijke Brigade (The Merry Brigade) . 34 In addition to

taking classes with Florrie Rodrigo, and rehearsing with her

company, Lucas also started working with let Last; he taught

children's classes in acting and dance. 35

Rodrigo's work was always politically inspired and very

theatrical, two elements Lucas appreciated very much. "I would

never have gained political consciousness without Florrie. You

could feel that was the motivation of all her work". 36 And

Greetj e Denker, a fellow company member added "One would

always feel something with Florrie of her 'I have to' " 37 The

first dance Lucas performed with her was De Schepelingen (The

Sailors). The premiere, with music by Cor Lemaire, was May 17

1934 in the Rika Heppert-theater in Amsterdam. De Schepelingen

dealt with a mutiny on a battleship of the Dutch Navy, "De

Zeven Provincien" (The Seven Provinces), prompted by the Dutch

33 Jan Spierdijk, "Jef Last portretteert Andre Gide. Memoires al op komst. Ook hij schrij ft 'sneller dan God kan lezen. ' " De Telegraaf, March 10 1967.

34 "Ida Last-Verhaar overleden." Het Parool, November 111982. let Last also became in later years the founder of the (children's) Circus Elleboog.

35 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 3 1995.

36 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

37 Paul 't Lam, "In mij n dans klaagde ik de maatschappij aan." Hervormd Nederland, January 21 1984. 13

government's plan to lower the sailors' wages. 38 During the

mutiny. on February 10 1933, a bomb was dropped on the ship,

leaving twenty-three Indonesian and Dutch sailors dead. The

Dutch government tried to cover up what had happened, and said

the intention was to drop the bomb next to the ship. Leftist

newspapers like De Waarheid (The Truth) and leftist artists

revealed the true history of this violent government action

against the sailors' uprising. 39

Florrie Rodrigo's choreography, possibly also inspired

40 by Eisenstein's movie Potemkin , started with_ a scene in the

streets of the Jordaan; an organ grinder was playing his tunes

and sailors were dancing in the streets. 41 The second scene

showed the actual mutiny, which ended with a thunderous beat

on a cymbal. In the last scene the dead bodies were carried on

stage, the women wore black scarves, mourning the violent

death of their relatives, and it ended "with a powerful dance

of solidarity, trusting in a better future to come". 42

Throughout the dance, a concert singer, Therese Stokvis, added

another layer to the drama, singing "Jewish songs with her

38 Jessica Voeten, "Dansen in dienst van de revolutie." NRC Handelsblad, August 26 1983.

39 See for a detailed story on the mutiny: Maud Boss chart, Muiterij op de Zeven Provincien. Amsterdam, 1982.

40 Eva van Schaik, p. 31.

41 The Jordaan neighborhood was, and is, known for it's strong neighborhood feeling.

42 Eva Van Schaik, p. 33. 14

deep nostalgic voice". 43

The premiere performance of Schepelingen provoked fierce

reactions in the bourgeois press. Werumeus Buning of De

Telegraaf and Scholte of the NRC wrote the dance was

"repulsive, disgusting revolutionary propaganda", and demanded

it not be permitted on the stage. 44 The city government did

ban Rodrigo's work and no more public performances were

allowed. Every work Rodrigo wanted to perform had to be

screened by the police. Schepelingen could only be performed

for private audiences, so the Arbeiders Film en Theater Bond

(The Worker's Film and Theater League) asked Rodrigo to

perform her work in Krasnapolsky45 for their members, thus

avoiding the working of the censor. 46 Besides losing

audiences, Rodrigo also lost almost all her richer students,

something she didn't regret too much, except for the income.

Lucas Hoving worked in Florrie Rodrigo's company from

43 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

44 Rodrigo said in an interview, that Werumeus Buning wanted to have Yvonne Georgi replace her as a performer and choreographer. The same Werumeus Buning joined the Nazi oriented Kulturkammer in The Netherlands, and was, like Georgi, convicted of collaboration with the Nazis. Eva van Schaik "Ik ben rood, en ik blijf rood, daar is niets aan te doen". Trouw, September 3 1983. See also Lisette Lewin, "Florrie Rodrigo." De Volkskrant, July 24 1982.

45 Krasnapolsky is a hotel in the center of Amsterdam which had an auditorium for special occasions, which could be rented out.

46 Isabelle Lanz, "Florrie Rodrigo negentig." De Waarheid, September 3 1983. Rodrigo remembered not only she, but also her former room mate, among many others, the painter Harmen Meurs, got censored. 15

47 about 1933-1936 , during a period of deep economic depression. Politically the changes in The Netherlands were

profound. They were related to Hitler's rise in Germany and

resulted in increased support for the biggest fascist party in

The Netherlands, the Nationaal Socialisten Bond (N. S. B.) .

Riots broke out in many Dutch cities between fascists and

anti-fascists, and these not only ocurred in the streets.

During more and more of Florrie Rodrigo's performances, Lucas

Hoving found himself in the middle of riots. Fascists threw

bottles on stage and screamed "Get the hell out of here, you

filthy communists". 48 Although the show went on, Florrie

Rodrigo felt more vulnerable, as a Jew and a communist. She

got fewer concert engagements, and decided to take the company

to Brussels. 49 Greetje Donker, Martha Bruijn, Harry Portijn,

Lucas Hoving, Lou van Yck and Karel Poons went with her. 50

She was hoping for more creative space, less poverty and

better times than existed in The Netherlands.

Although the fascists in Belgium did not have as strong

a grip on the social and cultural life as their northern

allies did, Brussels was still a hard place to be. Staying

47 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 3 1995.

48 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

49 Despite information given by Lucas, and intensive research done in the Netherlands Institute for the Dance, an exact date of departure for Brussels has not been found. They left probably in the winter of 1935/1936.

50 Eva van Schaik, p.32. 16

alive through the Depression and the changing political

climate was even more an issue than in Amsterdam. Lucas

Hoving, and several other members of the company rented a

furnished apartment at the Chaussee Ixelles 198 in 1936. Lou

van Yck lived in a pension on the same street, and Florrie

Rodrigo and her husband Cees de Dood rented a separate

apartment. They used a studio in the center of Brussels,

called "La Maison des Artistes" (House of Artists) . It was a

long walk from their apartments, but there was no money for

taking a bus or train. Lucas found himself working at night as

a second piano player in a band at a nightclub called "La

Gaietee", across from the post office and the Muntschouwburg (Theatre de la Monnaie) . He also tap danced for a while in the

same establishment, but the owner of "La Gaietee" didn't like

men dancing, and he had to stop. 51

The shows played two or three times a night. In between,

Lucas had some time to relax and eat something. Most of the

dancers and musicians at "La Gaietee" ordered sandwiches and

coffee, but Lucas, because he was so poor, brought his slices of bread with brown sugar with him in a wrinkled newspaper. 52

The financial situation of the Rodrigo group was dire.

Lucas was the only one who earned money on a regular basis;

Lou van Yck went on the weekends to Amsterdam to teach.

51 "Growing Up In Public", p.37, and confirmed in the telephone interview with Lucas Hoving February 3 1995.

52 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 17

Everybody shared everything with the other members of the

company; they lived like a commune. And although it was a

tough period, Karel Poons remembered this time in Brussels as

a "wonderful period of dancing, rehearsing, going out, and

putting the last francs together so Florrie could make us a

stew again".~ Florrie took the opportunity to audition for

Madame Delfa, a classical ballet teacher. When she showed her

modern dance to music of Chopin, Madame Delfa only said

"Ridiculous", leaving Florrie with a broken heart. But once

home, her husband Cees de Dood told her "You can't dance at

all. You don't know your skills". She felt terrible, but at

age forty-three started taking ballet classes with Madame

Del fa. 54

The situation never got better though, and after about six months, probably in the middle of 1936, or the beginning

of 1937, everybody, went back to Amsterdam again. By 1936

Florrie had created a new work, Vreemd Land (Unknown

Country) . 55 When the Amsterdam police came to censor it, at dress rehearsal, the dancers hammed up everything they did, so

53 Hans Vogel, "Karel Poons ruilt Scapino voor 'luieren'." Het Parool, May 18 1977.

54 Eva van Schaik, "Ik ben rood en ik blij f rood, daar is niets aan te doen. 11 Trouw, September 3 1983.

55 Lucas Hoving had a role as 11 the man 11 in the first scene, and in the third scene, "the concentration camp", but he didn't remember the dance in 1995. Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. 18

the pol ice wouldn' t object; and they didn' t. 56 During the

official performances, they did dance seriously about a

travelling group that arrived in an unknown country. A

glittering ball, symbolizing Adolf Hitler, kept appearing on

stage while they danced about the disasters, the killings, the

concentration camps. As a consequence of their make-believe

dress rehearsal for the police, the Rodrigo troupe got little

attention from the press, with the exception of the leftist

papers and the Handelsblad. 57

Back in Amsterdam, Florrie Rodrigo set up a studio in

the attic of her rented house at the Nieuwe Zijds Voorburgwal.

Her apartment was opposite the main building of De Telegraaf,

whose dance critic L.M.G. Arntszenius had heavily criticized her work. Nearby, in the Spuistraat, Lucas Hoving and Lou van

Yck ("Small Lou and Tall Lou.") got a part of an attic to live

in. Some of the other company members went back to their

parents, or to their husbands if they were married.

After coming back from Brussels, Florrie Rodrigo tried to continue her work with her company, this time with only

Greetje Donker, Selma Chapon and Martha Bruijn. They were

called "Les Quatres Femmes Rodrigo". There were few

engagements, because of her political point of view, and the

financial situation was bad. They stayed alive by working as

56 Els Smit, "Buig wat minder, stel de wereld aan de kaak. Florrie Rodrigo, 'n rijk rood leven. 11 Het Vrije Volk, 1 mei 1982.

57 Het Handelsblad is a liberal newspaper. Lisette Lewin, "Florrie Rodrigo." De Volkskrant, July 24 1982. 19

an entr'acte in cinemas and working for the famous Variete

Faveur. 58 With the German occupation Rodrigo had to dismantle

this group of women. 59 Lucas, whom Rodrigo had described as

1160 "a beautiful dancer, just wonderful , had left Florrie's

company, and resumed working in clubs, revues (among them the

Meijer-Hamel-Revue) 61 and musicals with his former partner

Dolly Morissey. The engagements he got with her were not real

money-makers, because their fees were low; they also did their

own management. Lucas had mixed feelings about these kind of

jobs, though he felt happier when he liked the music he had to

dance to, or had the opportunity to meet other, interesting, performers. He had the opportunity of working for a couple of

months on the same program as "Snip & Snap", in what was

called "De Nationale Revue". 62 He also met Lizzy Velasco

through this revue, a female dancer with a very deep, hoarse

voice, who sang the blues. Often Lucas felt lonely in these

jobs, as he was one of the few men with all the chorus girls.

58 Jessica Voeten, op. cit.

59 Eva van Schaik, p. 32.

60 Els Smit, op. cit.

61 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 3 1995. Was it at this time he was affiliated with the Dutch Opera Ballet as a soloist? John Vassos, "Why-Modern Dance", mentions his performing with the Dutch Opera Ballet, but Lucas didn't recall himself dancing with them. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

62 See also: Hans Vogel, "Lucas Hoving, een balletzigeuner." Het Parool, December 28 1979. "De Nationale Revue", under directorship of Mr. Sleeswijk, was also called the "Sleeswijk­ Revue." 20

Ben Ludowski' s Variete Group was one of the "revues"

with which Lucas enjoyed working. They were all dancers, three

men and five women; and one of them was Dolly Morissey. They

all knew each other f ram other occasions, thus farming an

intimate group. The director, Ben Ludowski, born in Amsterdam,

also danced, during the variety theater performances or in the

movie theaters. 63 Lucas recalled:

He would always say something what would make people laugh, thereby screwing up the performance. It made performances often look terrible, but he didn't care. The work atmosphere was one of comraderie; everybody was poor, nobody was special. Sometimes we would go down from Ben Ludowski's studio in the Spuistraat, to a bakery around the corner. We would enter the shop with several dancers, one asking the lady behind the counter something about the cookies, while some of the others would steal some chocolate, to be divided later amongst all of us. We wouldn't use the bus or tram to go from one place to another, and would buy bread from the day before, because it was cheaper. We didn't feel there was any depression going on; we always had been poor. 64

After Lucas worked for a short while with the Swiss

choreographer Trudi Schaap, "whose repeated and succesful

performances" 65 made quite an impression on Dutch audiences

, Lucas Hoving and Dolly Morissey performed in the summer of

1937 in a musical in the Stadsschouwburg, City Theater of

Amsterdam. Yvonne Georgi, a German dancer/choreographer, who

63 Dances were performed before the movie started and during intermission.

64 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

65 Ben van Eijsselstein, "Lucas Hoving teruggekeerd in Nederland. Vakantie met. . zestien lesuren per week." Haagsche Courant, March 29 1958. See also: "Lucas Hoving." Danskroniek, February-March 1958, Volume 11, no.2-3. 21

66 had just returned from a tour through the United States , was in the audience. She came up to Lucas after the performance and asked if he wanted to dance with her. Georgi, a former student of Mary Wigman, and former partner of the much younger Harald Kreutzberg, was considered to be one of the major teachers of modern dance in The Netherlands before

World War II; Lucas agreed to work with her. In the eyes of

Lucas, Georgi "was a beautiful person. She had some Arabian blood in her veins, from her mother's side I believe. Add an enormous bunch of hair, and she looked like the head of a pharoah. She was impatient", Lucas recalled67 and Dola de Jong, one of Georgi's first students, and Lucas' life-time friend, remembered her as a "beast, but because of that Georgi was able to make it. 1168 Georgi was a gorgeous performer, but hadn't had any classical training at all. What she knew about classical ballet Georgi imitated from her dancers. Among them were: Mascha ter Weeme, Georgi's assistant with a studio in Amsterdam's Laressestraat where they often rehearsed (that gave her also influence on the dividing of the roles, according to Dola); Jopie Zuiver, Julia Passchoek, and Jenny Roders, a hard working student, who had learned classical ballet from a book. These dancers every now and than went to Paris to take a couple of classes with Olga Preobrajenska. At

66 Eva van Schaik, p.52.

67 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

68 Interview with Dola de Jong, December 1994. 22

that time it really looked good if all of a sudden one or more

of the dancers of a modern ballet "went on their toes" . 69

Yvonne Georgi was rich, and lived in the Carlton hotel

in Amsterdam when she married the influential music and dance

critic, and conductor, L.M.G. Arntszenius. Arntzenius worked

for the conservative newspaper De Telegraaf, in Amsterdam.

They bought a house in the Hugo Metsiusstraat, and on the top

floor they created a studio for Yvonne. 70

Georgi choreographed dance without any political

71 context. , Her style was not considered refined or with a

lot of humor. But her drive to dance was very strong. Often

she was considered to hold "the middle ground between Trudi

69 Interview of the author with Dola de Jong, December 3 1994, New York. During the same interview Dola de Jong expressed her sarcasm towards the level of modern dance in The Netherlands during the 1920s and 1930s. She called it pure "amateuristic".

70 Ibid.

71 After World War II, Yvonne Georgi, and her husband, like Neel Kuiper, another Wigman disciple, were accused, and found guilty of collaborating with the Nazis, because she was able to continue working during the German occupation. (See: "Uitspraken Centrale Eereraad voor de kunst. Badings, Georgi en Arntzenius." Nieuwe Courant, January 10 1946; also: "Uitsluitingen op kunstgebied. Yvonne Georgi en haar ballet. De Maasbode, October 31 1945) She always denied the accusation of collaboration. Her husband's newspaper, De Telegraaf, before the war a "respectable" (bola de Jong) newspaper, was the only newspaper which came from the presses during wartime in The Netherlands without much obstruction from the German invaders. This left a bitter taste in many a Dutch mouth. Lucas never said anything about Georgi's war past. Karel Poons, thought Georgi was wrongly judged. He "thought she just had continued working because she was scared" (in Hans Vogel, "Karel Poons ruilt Scapino voor 'luieren'"). "Lucas has a deeply compassionate position-how can any of us judge those caught by the Nazis." Remark by Ann Murphy, in letter to the author. May 1995. 23

72 Schoop and Kurt Jooss" , or a movement style "what's partly

ballet, and partly something else, giving the impression of a

mishmash" . 73

Lucas accepted Yvonne's offer and expected she needed

him for her company. He thought he was to join Dola de Jong,

one of her first company members plus Karel Poons and Harry

Portijn. To his own surprise, Yvonne, who was much older than

he was, wanted him to replace Harald Kreutzberg in the duets

she used to dance with him before he started his solo career.

Among these duets were the Hungarian Dances to music of

74 Brahms • "The Hungarian Dances are more than a gay grip from

the treasures of folklore; they are decorated with funny and

ingenious little exquisitenesses and they get towards the end

of the duet between Georgi and Hovinga a big "Aufschwung" in

this wonderful dramatic dancing together" 75 Together with

other soloists Mascha ter Weeme, Marie-Jeanne van der Veen,

Bob Nijhuis, Alfred Hiltman and Jan de Ruiter, Lucas did very

76 well in Georgi's major works with the Wagnervereniging ; Die

72 "Balletten Yvonne Georgi. Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam." Dated 1939. Nederlands Instituut voor de Dans, Amsterdam. Clippings Yvonne Georgi.

73 "Dansberichten. Yvonne Georgi terug ui t Amerika." January 29 1939.

74 "Ballet te Scheveningen. Balletgroep Yvonne Georgi." Algemeen Handelsblad, August 5 1938.

75 Dutch newspaper, no name nor date. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

76 An opera company on a non-prof it basis. 24

Geschoepf e des Prometheus to music of Ludwig von Beethoven, and Le Tricorne (El Sombrero des Tres Picos) to music of

Manuel de Falla. The Amsterdam premiere of both works took

place April 19 1938, at the Stadsschouwburg of Amsterdam. The

Concertgebouw-orchestra was conducted by Georgi's husband

L.M.G. Arntzenius, and the scenery was designed by Louis

Saalborn. In Die Geschoepfe des Prometheus77 Lucas seemed to

have found the "right attitude for Zeus". 78 The critics

weren't that complementary about Georgi's Le Tricorne. It was

considered outside her realm (in contrast to Prometheus, which

was considered to be her strongest work). They felt she didn't

comprehend the Spanish dance vocabulary, and the music lost

tempo in order to keep up with the dancers. Lucas had never

ever danced flamenco before, but Georgi told him "You can do

79 it! You can do it! " • The way Lucas saw it, "I was making a

lot of noise by stamping on the floor". 80 And the critics were divided, although never really enthusiastic. One wrote

about the "clumsiness" of Lucas' translation of Spanish dance;

77 Rehearsals had taken place outside, on an inner court, in the southern part of Amsterdam, giving some Amsterdammers a free preview of their ballet performance. See pictures NID.

78 "Wagnervereeniging. Ballet Yvonne Georgi." Unknown Dutch newspaper, wrongly dated 1939. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. Yvonne Georgi clippings.

79 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

80 Ibid. 25

there was not even a similarity to Spanish dance.B1 Part of

the criticism was also directed at the low level of technique,

but improvements were noticed, and Yvonne Georgi was hailed

for trying to raise the level of ballet. The critics felt that

Georgi's group was the closest thing to a ballet company in

The Netherlands at that time.

That summer, for the performance of August 5 1938,

Lucas' name was on huge posters at the Kurhaus. This was an

important theater in Scheveningen, the seaside resort of The

Hague, the governmental seat of The Netherlands. Only a couple

of months later after the Amsterdam performances, Dutch

critics had changed their views about Lucas' roles, especially

in Le Tricorne. "The miller's wife and the miller were danced

by Yvonne Georgi and Lou Hovinga, who performed a fierce and

sharply worked out solo dance with beautiful tension". B2

Another critic had this comment about Lucas: "Especially the

musically known miller's dance with it's strong and

fascinating acceleration gave him the opportunity to show his

dance talent, in a forceful dynamic climax". B3 In this review

Emmeline Teyes and Harry Portijn were also mentioned as strong

Bl "Balletten Yvonne Georgi. Kurhaus." Dutch newspaper, no name, August 5 1938. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. Yvonne Georgi clippings.

B2 Unknown Dutch newspaper, no name nor date. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. The Netherlands. Yvonne Georgi clippings.

B3 "Ballet te Scheveningen. Balletgroep Yvonne Georgi." lgemeen Handelsblad, August 5 1938. 26

performers. The critic J. W. F. Werumeus Buning noted about

Lucas: "His dance of the miller. of great tension and power,

his mimetic gifts give all hope for the future". 84

In August 1938, Georgi premiered another work, Schaduwen

(Shadows). Lucas and Mascha ter Weeme excelled in their

performance. Critics described the choreography as secretive,

full of fantasy, but unclear. The score for the choreography

was created by composer and musical assistant of the company,

Wolfgang Wijdeveld, and sets there were by Louis Saalborn.

A small tour was scheduled afterwards, to Rotterdam and some smaller provincial cities. They didn't earn much at the

time, five guilders for each performance, and lived from a

bottle of milk and a loaf of bread a day. 85 But Yvonne had

bigger plans for Lucas: she wanted to make him the new Kreutzberg. At this point, Lucas, through Dolly Morissey, with

whom he still danced in Ben Ludowski's Variete Ballet, met a

former member of the Jooss Ballet, and also former member of

Yvonne Georgi's company Evert Compaen from Zaandam. 86 When he

saw Lucas dance, he suggested: "You should go to Jooss ! " . Lucas saved seventy guilders from one of his performances with

Variete Faveur, went to audition for the Jooss school, and was

accepted as a scholarship student. The notice of his

84 J. w. F. Werumeus Buning, "Ballet ten Yvonne Georgi." De Telegraaf, August 5 1938. Nedrlands Instituut voor de Dans, Amsterdam. Yvonne Georgi clippings.

85 Interview with Dola de Jong, December 1994.

86 His real name was Evert Smit. 27

scholarship came from his sister. She called him in Zurich,

Switserland, where he just had started working with Trudi

Schoop; he'd only been there for four days. He loved dancing

Schoop's work, which came close to pantomime, and watch her

dancing. "On an empty stage, I see her play the piano, play

the miseries out." He remembered "It broke my heart, but I had

to leave", Lucas recalled. B7 And he had to tell Yvonne

Georgi. Yvonne Georgi was furious and moved heaven and earth to

keep Lucas from going away. She offered to support his study

of ballet in Paris, with Preobrajenska, but Lucas didn't want

to be a ballet dancer. She began to pick him up in her

limousine before going to performances in Amsterdam, but this

didn't impress him either. Despite the enormous pressure

Yvonne Georgi put on him, and even to his own surprise, Lucas

stuck to his decision. After a last performance with her in

the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam for the Queen of the

NetherlandsBB, Lucas left for Dartington Hall, Sussex,

England, September 1938, to study modern dance with Kurt

Jooss, one of the greatest teachers and choreographers of his

time.

B7 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 3 1995.

BB "It was a fantastic feeling", Lucas recalled, "I remember the performance, and got quite close to the Queen, but I don't remember the rehearsals. Rightaway after that I left for Jooss". Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. CHAPTER III

JOOSS

Lucas' life changed the instant he entered Kurt Jooss'

school at Dartington Hall. Lucas' life in The Netherlands was

the "life of a gypsy" 89 but in England he was now housed on

1190 "this incredible estate , in a stable environment where he

could study and learn. The previous five years had been

tumultuous; Lucas moving from one company to another, working

with several at the same time, and travelling in The

Netherlands and Belgium with all of them, without ever having

had a professional dance education. Kurt Jooss, a native of Germany, received his training

with Rudolf von Laban. Jooss came into world prominence in

1932, when he won the first prize in the International

Concours of Dance, in Paris, France, for his choreography The Green Table, an anti-war ballet. Jooss left Germany in 1934

because anti-semitism was aimed at his composer, colleague and

friend Fritz Cohen. 91 After his flight to The Netherlands, he

89 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. This was one of Lucas' favourite titles of past periods in his life. Interview Susan Walleck with Lucas Hoving, February 25 1985, San Francisco.

90 Ibid.

91 In addition, Jooss became more and more a target of anti­ semitism in the press, because of his being 1/8 Jewish.

28 29

was offered a residency at the progressive school at Dartington Hall, which had a curriculum emphasizing the arts.

Lucas remembered the teachers he studied with at

Dartington Hall, and thought Jooss had a "formidable

staff". 92 One of Lucas' teachers wasn't new to him, Pen Becker. She was a Dutch woman, who had started out as a very young student with Jooss, and had taught Lucas eurythmy

classes at Florrie Rodrigo's studio. 93

There were also two German sisters, Gertrud and Ursula ·Falke, who taught at Dartington Hall. Gertrud married a German, and went by the name of Gertrud Heller. She had been a student of Elsa Kindler. Heller "put us down on very small chairs, and let us sit still. Or she would have us sitting

against a tree, and feel like a tree. Or lie down on our

backs; or stand on a fist-thick pole. It was terrible in the

beginning. Wasn't this torture instead of dance ? " 94 But once he would lay down, or be on his feet again on the wooden floor, Lucas remembered, his back and feet would feel soft, and the floor felt good under his body. "She forced us to get

into our body." Nobody comprehended what was happening. "Once

92 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

93 According to Lucas, Florrie Rodrigo wasn't solely focused on modern dance. In fact, she liked to work with dancers in a broader sense, bringing people in who taught eurythmy, acting etc. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. Later on, Pen Becker would marry the Dutch painter Jan Howij, who painted both the portraits of Lucas Hoving and Lavina Nielsen.

94 Ibid. 30

I became very angry because she didn't want to explain what

she was doing ... Everybody knew it was good to do, because it

opened up something inside of us ... Ten years later, I really

understood. 1195

Lucas also took classes based on the materials developed

by Rudolf von Laban. These were' divided into two theoretical

areas: Choreutics which related to theories about space and

the human body, and Kinetics, in which concepts of different

movement were emphasized, Choreutics was definitely not Lucas'

favourite pass-time; the material was too dry. Although the

teacher was a beautiful person, according to Lucas, she was

still very German in the way she expressed herself: He

remembered her sitting in the window, "screaming in her

typically German way, when teaching". But at that time, he

considered that to be normal . 96

Lucas felt Jooss provided a superb analysis of what

movement was in terms of energy and space. 97 "Jooss was an

intellectual, very intelligent, and was one of my most solid

and important influences. I really never had him as a teacher.

I got to know him as a person around 1970 and of course I knew

95 Interview Susan Walleck with Lucas Hoving, February 1985.

96 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

97 Lucas never saw Kurt Jooss perform with Sigurd Leeder, but he did see him in The Green Table, dancing "Death", in his hometown Groningen as young boy, and later on in Amsterdam. Lucas noted that in those days "Jooss had three chins, which would move with every move he made". Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 31

him as a director. " 98

At Dartington Hall, in the Fall of 1938 99 Lucas

really started his formal dance training. But the regular routine at Dartington Hall was destroyed when Germany invaded

Poland. The following year, September 1939, Great-Britain and

France, wiser after the debacle of Munich, in which Czechoslovakia was "given away" to Nazi Germany the year

before, accepted the consequences of their pact with Poland.

They declared war on Nazi Germany. All of a sudden, on a

Sunday morning, two days before the Jooss Ballet was supposed

to tour England, Scotland and Ireland, somebody bounced on

Lucas' door, screaminbg "You' re in the company". 100 Two

dancers had returned to their native Germany because of the

war and Jooss neede replacements. Later that day, Lucas and

Lydia (Franklin-) Kocers, a Latvian girl, were offically asked to join. Lucas agreed and ended his formal dance training at

Dartington Hall. 101

Lucas' dance education continued on tour, as he learned

his parts in such unlikely places as boats, trains, and buses,

98 Ibid.

99 The Dutch newspaper articles, concerning this period, at the Netherlands Institute of the Dance in Amsterdam, were mistakenly dated 1939.

100 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

101 A third person, the Dutch dancer Amy Saint Juste/Amy de Haze-Winkelman, daughter of the governor-general of Indonesia, was asked as well, but she declined, according to Lucas, because she thought she "wouldn't be happy with it". Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 32

as well as in rehearsal studios. Jooss was still with the

troupe during the quite successful tour through Great Britain,

but just as Jooss' fifth tour to the United States was about

to start, the British arrested and interned him as an enemy.

Fritz Alexander Cohen, the assistant artistic director, was

put in charge of the company.

As a result Lucas never had the chance to participate in

the creation of a new work by Jooss nor experience first-hand

his choreographic process. But Lucas learned a lot by dancing

the repertory. "Jooss was a great director. Very few

choreographers are, and maybe their work doesn't demand that,

but his pieces demanded that" . 102 He was a man of drama,

clear about the energy and qualities he wanted the dancers to

perform. For Lucas, working in the Jooss Ballet was "a

revelation" . 103

Jooss was regarded as a man of great originality, one

who had developed a system of both technique and choreography

that utilized the theoretical ideas he learned from Laban, but

using them in a way that made movement more meaningful,

dramatic and emotional. Laban wrote the following to Jooss in

102 Evy Warshawski, "Spotlight on Lucas Hoving. A Lifetime of Modern Dance." Dance Teacher Now, April 1988, p.15.

103 Ibid. Jooss seemed to Lucas an extension of Florrie Rodrigo's work. Both artists were choreographers with a Jewish heritage, trying to express their concerns for the world through socially conscious dance. In the choreography of each the dramatic element was critical, and both were, as such, considered to be representatives of the "Ausdruckstanz". Each seemed more director than choreographer, and both had a strong urge to express their humanistic and political values in their art. 33

1938:

I see how through your work, more than through the work of any of my other disciples and collaborators, a great hope nears fulfillment: that the language of movement might become apt to express in any understandable form those deep and essential things which can only be stated by dance. For the driving force of the new creative dance is still the desire to express those things which cannot be rendered articulate in any other language. Through work of this kind much has already been achieved towards receiving a genuine feeling for movement: creating a new, more human, technique of dancing, breaking with excessive virtuosity; and awakening in the spectator a pleasure in and understanding for the dance. All these however, are just the basic elements of a new international language in which it will be possible for the new dancer to make manifest the artistic creed. 104

It was a big step for Lucas to go from the school to the

company, but it helped that there were several other Dutch

dancers in the Jooss Ballet. These included Freule Noel de

105 Mosa, from an aristocratic background , Atty van den Bergh,

106 a woman named Joke , Evert Compaen, the man who had

persuaded him to audition for the Jooss school, and Arnold van

Ochterop, another tall Dutch dancer. The reason there were so

many Dutch dancers, according to Lucas, was that Jooss' style,

which "held the middle ground between classical ballet and

11107 Graham technique , suited the Dutch dancers very well.

New Year's Eve, December 31 1939, the Jooss Ballet

104 L. T. Carr, "The Jooss Ballet Opens The New Season. Revivals and New Productions Are Featured In The Company's Sixth American Tour." Dance, October 1941, p.14.

105 Telephone interview with Lucas Hoving, February 1995.

106 Lucas couldn't remember her last name.

107 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 34

arrived in New York, for a tour through the United States. "Almost straight from the boat we went en masse to see a performance given by Martha Graham that night. I was

fascinated, and I made up my mind that if I returned I would

study with her. 11108 He was deeply impressed by the dramatic character of the choreography. After travelling around the United States for four months, from January through April 1940, and visiting more

than seventy American cities, the Jooss Ballet set out for Latin America. They started in Montevideo, Uruguay. Eagerly looking for reviews in the newspaper after their opening night performance, they read the headlines: "Germany invades

Holland." It was May 10 1940. 109 The next day, together with Noel de Mosa and Atty van den Bergh, Lucas went to see the ambassador in Montevideo, who told them it was impossible to return to The Netherlands, and showed that "the Dutch bureaucracy was as bad as bureaucracy

11 110 anywhere else • Lucas' attitude was "I didn't want to jump

around in Latin America while my home country is invaded by

11111 the Nazis , so he tried to join the Royal Dutch Army. But

108 Norma Stahl, "Conversation with Lucas Hoving." Dance Magazine, August 1955, p.45.

109 "Growing Up in Public, p.38.

110 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

111 Ibid. 35

the Embassy sent him away empty-handed. 112 Lucas decided to

continue touring with the Jooss Ballet and they had great

success for eleven months in South America.

Lucas enjoyed touring through Latin America a lot. He

"loved all the singing in the streets". 113 But the work was

very tiring, especially in the beginning when Lucas was not

used to it. That type of life didn't leave much time and

energy to get involved in relationships; they happened

occasionally, but not too often. Besides, more than half of

the men were gay. Lucas could only recall two Jooss Ballet

couples being married; one of them was Ernst Ludhof and Lola

Botka.

The original tour was supposed to encompass several

months in Latin America, and then a trip to Japan. But when

Japan entered the war, the tour in Latin America was extended

for another year. "We'd better be a success", Lucas recalls in

114 "Growing Up In Public" , and they were. They travelled from

Brazil, down south along the East coast through Uruguay and Argentina. "Three months we played in Buenos Aires, in one

theater. We were the first European dance company since

Pavlova, and we had all the time to connect with poets,

112 It wasn't until a year later, after arriving in New York City, that Lucas was allowed to enlist in the Royal Dutch Army in Exile.

113 Ibid.

114 "Growing Up In Public", p. 38. 36

writers and actors there" . 115 Then they went up north again

through Chile, "where we had an earthquake in

11116 Santiago , and Peru, towards Bogota, Colombia and Caracas,

Venezuela. 111 "It took us six days travelling over land from

Bogota to Caracas. We stopped in places you hardly could call

a place". 118

After that year the Jooss Ballet returned to the United

States for it's sixth American tour, starting off in New York.

With an extended world tour came a need for more repertory,

and so for the first time in the history of the Jooss Ballet

two dance works were on the program that were not

choreographed by Kurt Jooss himself: Lucas Hoving' s News Reel,

and Agnes DeMille' s Drums Sound in Hackensack. 119 The troupe

had set up a contest for the script of new work created

especially for the New York season. Lucas Hoving "won" the

contest.

I was able to make up and write down a good story, but choreographing was somewhat different from that (Note:L). ( ... ) We didn't learn choreography in the Jooss school; it was just the craziest thing, especially since I'd never done it before. And I was the youngest member of the company, and had to tell all the older

115 Interview Susan Wal lock with Lucas Hoving, February 1985.

116 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

111 Interview Susan Walleck with Lucas Hoving, February 1985. See also M.E. Schwitter, "Lucas Hovinga's Danscarriere. Een Nederlander die succes had in Amerika. Wereldkroniek, October 15 1953.

118 Interview Susan Wal lock with Lucas Hoving, February 1985.

119 L.T. Carr, Dance, October 1941, p.12. 37

dancers what to do. It was terrible. It had to be a collaborative work, because I didn't know nothing. " 120 Thanks to the fact that "all the participating members of

the company contributed both to the form and the substance

11121 of the work , Lucas was able to finish the choreography of

News Reel . 122 Both works were performed for the first time September

22, 1941 at the Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York, where the

Jooss Ballet had a limited engagement . 123 Also on the program

was Jooss' The Prodigal Son, a new version of the old

production. Everything was new: scenery, music by Frederic

124 125 Cohen , costumes , and even the choreography, probably

without the consent of Kurt Jooss himself. There were two more

new ballets for American audiences. One was Jooss' Chronica,

which dealt with the career of a Renaissance dictator and

11126 which was "more philosophical , and more indirect than The

120 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

121 L. T. Carr, op.cit . p. 12 .

122 In DeMille' s work, Lucas danced the lead, and was the partner of guest artist Agnes DeMille. Ann Murphy, "Snapshot biography". San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

123 Lucas didn't think News Reel was ever performed, because there was no money for it. When confronted with the review he said "I must have repressed it". Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

124 He changed his name from Fritz Alexander to Frederic.

125 Designed by Hein Heckroth.

126 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 38

Green Table, because it was placed in thirteenth or fourteenth century Italy. The other one was A Spring Tale, which was more romantic than The Green Table.

The Jooss Ballet also performed revivals of Ballade, The

Heroes, The Big City, A Ball in Old Vienna, Pavane, and of course Jooss' famous work The Green Table.

L.T. Carr, a critic for the magazine Dance, wrote in the

October 1941 edition :

The productions of the Jooss company are marked with imaginative theatricality, and a simple direct and technically beautiful vocabulary of dance movement is employed to express the keen and provocative ideas which underlie each work in its repertoire. The movements which are employed in the choreography of Kurt Jooss and the manner in which they are executed by the dancers he has trained are consistent with a fundamental conception of dance as an instrument of artistic expression. The movements are therefore direct and simple and they express the idea which is to be exposed or develop the dramatic situation to the extent desired as no other movements could possibly do. Each single or group gesture is exactly right and essential to the progress of the dance. Just as in literature or painting the function and capacity of the artist is to choose just one phrase or one value of color which will most pungently express his artistic idea, so in the dance of Kurt Jooss each movement is employed with a sureness of feeling and a definiteness of purpose. There are no idle gestures, no interpolations of purely technical virtuosity for its own sake. The ballets of Jooss are genuine comedies or dramas or romances, and in them he practices the same economy of line, and maintains the same sincerity and intensity of purpose which distinguish all fine theatre art. Jooss has not claimed to create a "new language" of the dance or to have introduced a new art-form. He has, rather, understood the real "language" of the dance with an objectivity that is remarkable, and he has been able, in his own work, to free that language from some of the corruptions that have come into general usage. He has eliminated lisps and stutters, cut out wordiness and affection, and he can now use this clear and simple speech to state forcefully and convincingly, and at the time subtly and gracefully, such dramatic or romantic 39

ideas as he wishes to expound. 127

An extended tour throughout the United States was

128 prepared and planned for by company manager Jan Howij , but

it was wartime and audiences were small. Finally, due to lack

of new contracts, the twenty-two-member Jooss Ballet and an

eight person crew129 disbanded in New York. The English

dancers went back to England. 130 Ernst Uthof f and Lola Botka

(husband and wife) and Rudolf Pesche, one of those who danced

for many years with the Jooss Balllet, went back to Santiago,

Chile. 131 Several other dancers found work in the United

States. Atty van den Bergh started a solo tour at the end of

132 1941 with the American pianist and conductor Simon Sadoff ,

and Lucas continued his daily training in Martha Graham's

classes. During Spring 1942 he got work, acting in a play

alongside the actress Louise Rainer, who also starred in

127 L. T. Carr, op.cit. p .13-14.

128 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

129 Ibid.

130 Eva van Schaik, Op Gespannen Voet, p.48, mistakenly sets the stranding of the Jooss Ballet in 1947.

131 While touring there, they had discovered there was a solid market for their teaching in the cities; a large German population in Chile made it easier for the dancers to find roots. Uthoff was invited by the University of Chile to found a dance school. This eventually developed into Cile's National Ballet. Hans Ehrmann, 11 "Obituary Ernst Uthoff , Dance Magazine, October 1993, p.97.

132 Simon Sadoff became rehearsal pianist for the New Opera Company's Rosalinde, in which Jose Limon danced in the corps de ballet. Eugene Palatsky, "Meet Simon Sadoff. 11 Dance Magazine, December 1963, p.19. 40

movies. 133 April through May 1942, a large portion of the former

Jooss Ballet dancers joined the circus. Contracted through Dola de Jong, the former Georgi dancer, the troupe went to work for the Dutch steel magnate Bernard van Leer and his

Circus Kavaljos, which was renamed The Holland-Dutch Circus

van Leer. 134 These were the three Dutch dancers Lucas Hoving, Noel de Mosa and Amy de Haze-Winkelman, seven Americans, one Russian, the Latvian dancer Lydia Kocers, one Austrian and one

Swiss dancer; in total three male and eleven female

dancers. 135 A producer of oil drums, Van Leer had several factories in The Netherlands. Just two days before the German invasion of The Netherlands, he exported a complete oil drum producing

factory to the Dutch Antilles . 136 In the meantime, not blind

to the realities of Nazi conquest, Van Leer tried to sell his Dutch factories to the Germans. Part of the agreement would be that he would pay a ransom of several hundred thousand

133 M.E. Schwitter, "Lucas Hovinga's danscarriere. Een Nederlander die succes had in Amerika. Wereldkroniek, 15 oktober 1955. See also Danskroniek, April 1951.

134 See special Archive Circus Kavalj os, in The Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam.

135 Ibid.

136 He also had the patent for an oildrum closure, which the Germans were eager to get. He even delivered oil drums to the German Army, after the German invasion of The Netherlands, but didn't sell his license. Jannetje Koelewijn en Pauline Micheels, "Oliedrums en cirsupaarden. De oorlog van een geniale grootindustrieel." Vrij Nederland, 2 januari 1993. 41

guilders. Some f .150. 000 would be spent on a new Jewish

symphony orchestra, a Jewish string quartet, a Jewish

amusement orchestra, a Jewish theater company and a Jewish

"kleinkunst" ensemble, all to be established in Amsterdam.

They would be under control of the 'Departement van Nationale

Volksvoorlichting en Kunst' /Department of National Public

Relations and Art (Nicknamed Department of National

Bamboozlement by the Dutch, because of their Nazi

orientation) . 137 Another part of the agreement was that the

personnel of Circus Kavaljos and their families, could leave

The Netherlands together. Also included were his nineteen

horses: six Holland Frisians, seven Lippizaner horses, three

Arabians and two Shetland Ponies. 138 Van Leer tried to bring

as many Jewish people with him as possible as employees of

Circus Kavalj os, but he had limited success. He sold his

factories, and left for Spain by train. The journey of the

boxed horses, accompanied by Van Leer's directors and their families took seventy days by train through The Netherlands,

Belgium, France, and Spain. They then took a boat trip on the

Magelhaen over the Atlantic Ocean to Havana, and by September

1941 all of them arrived safely in New York City.

The American debut of Circus Kavaljos, now renamed The

137 Jacques Kloeters, 100 Jaar Amusement in Nederland. 's­ Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij, 1987, p.231.

130 "Four-Footed Fiesta. " Cue Says Go! p. 12 -13. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Archive Circus Kavaljos, Amsterdam. The Netherlands. 42

Holland-Dutch Circus Van Leer (and in reviews also mentioned

139 as the Holland Classical Circus) , took place in New York,

the week before Christmas 1941 at Radio City Music Hall, as

part of the "Kris Kringle Karnival" . 140 "They received more

acclaim than the internationally known Rockettes. 11141 There

were several additional performances in Yonkers, New York;

Bridgeport, Hartford and New Britain, Connecticut in June

1942, and it was during this time that the former Jooss

dancers performed.

Bernard Van Leer had asked Dola de Jong, his secretary,

and a friend of Lucas Hoving, to look for a choreographer and

a ballet troupe. She asked Lucas to take the job as

choreographer and create a ballet group. With him he took

142 Lavina Nielsen, Dick Wyatt , Alida Waltman, Lydia Kocers,

143 Jack Dunphy, Katleen Slagle , Elsa KahEmy De Haze-

Winkelman144 and a woman named Maya. The cast of thirteen

139 Ibid.

140 "Four-Footed Fiesta", p .12.

141 "Holland Circus To Arrive", Bridgeport. Conn., Post, June 9 1942.

142 Dick was a student of Trudi Schoop, and had hardly any technique when he arrived at Dartington Hall. But he was terribly talented; what his eyes saw, he could dance. Interview with Dola de Jong, December 1994.

143 Picture of Lucas Hoving and Katleen Slagle. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

144 When performing in the United States, she changed her name into Amy St. Juste. 43

members was completed with several other American dancers . 145

Lucas also took with him Fritz Cohen and Waltman, the piano

players of the Jooss Ballet.

The ex-Jooss dancers, who had been living off "rice and

146 bananas" , were all too happy to accept the circus job,

which paid them fifty dollars a week. This was a very good

salary and they were able to send home half the money. 147

While Bernard Van Leer bought all the big acts from Ringling

Brothers, Barnum and Baily Circus, in an attempt to become

148 bigger than they were , Lucas started choreographing

Rapsody in White . 149 This became the main act in the circus,

with white Lippizaner horses, dancers in white tutus on

horseback and others draping themselves on stage with bunches

of artificial white tullips. The highlight of the act was when

the little lamps in the bunches of tullips were switched on.

"It was pure kitsch", Dola de Jong recalled, "but people liked

145 An article from Pleasantville, Townson ("Famous Horse Breeds At Circus In Yonkers. Favorites of Royalty Perform Country Show", June 4 1942) spoke of seven Americans, three Dutch, one Russian, one Latvian. one Austrian and one Swiss dancer. Archive Circus Kavaljos, Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. The Netherlands.

146 Interview with Dola de Jong, December 1994.

147 Ibid.

148 Ibid.

149 Before World War II, his former employer Yvonne Georgi had choreographed her version of it in his native The Netherlands, for charity concerts of the Van Leer Circus, then Circus Kavaljos. 44

it. 11150 Lucas also choreographed a "Holland ballet in which

the boys and girls dance in wooden shoes and Dutch costumes on

the stage" and a "Spanish ballet... with Bernard Van Leer

riding a tango dancing horse in the ring" . 151 Dola de Jong

one day forgot to get the costumes for the Spanish ballet from

the cleaner's. Instead, that night, the dancers wore clown

costumes and it became a completely different ballet. Lucas,

the other dancers and the audience loved it. It became Lucas'

"piece de resistance", in which he could do whatever he

wanted, even though he wasn't on speaking terms with Van Leer.

He wasn't the only one. All the people who had been bought

away from Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus were

dissatisfied with the promises Van Leer had made. The man

became less popular, and more and more words such as "Rotten

Jew" or "This isn't Hitler country", referring to the

relentless way he ran the circus, were heard. But Van Leer

continued, stubbornly.

Although Van Leer had no experience in how to set up or

run a professional circus, and although people disliked him more and more, he stuck with his principles. Having started as

a philantropy in The Netherlands, he now gave the gross

receipts for the first day "to the local USO committee which

is making a drive for $ 3000 to provide gifts for men entering

150 Interview with Dola de Jong, December 1994.

151 Fred H. Russell, "Holland Classical Circus Proves Horselovers' Paradise." Bridgeport, Conn .. Post, June 11 1942. 45

the military service" . 152

In Bridgeport they performed on a refuse dump, and other

sites had no drainage system. Working circumstances were far

from ideal, and it was arduous work for Lucas and his dancers.

Their first performance in the boomtowns of Connecticut would

be at 9 a.m., starting to do their make-up at 7 a.m. in the

morning.

According to Lucas Hoving, music manager and director of the troupe, it is not at all necessary to diet or eat special food to stay slim. 'Quite the contrary', he maintains, 'We probably eat more than most people. It is our work which keeps us thin, we never practice less than five hours a day and sometimes as much as eight. Ballet dancing is hard work' . 153

After their performances in Connecticut, the circus

train moved down south, all the way into the Carolinas. In

every place they arrived around three a.m., rested for about

four hours and than began working around seven in the morning.

The dancers would rest in their chairs or beds. When Dola had

to wake up Lavina Nielsen, she noted:

I was always scared, since Lavina looked like she was dead. When I woke up I knew Lavina wasn't. But that was scary. Of a different order was my arrival in North Carolina. I had to go to the bathroom. When I saw the signs "Blacks" and "Whites", I became completely upset, running to Lucas Hoving for comfort. We were so naive. We'd fled the Nazis and thought we'd find here a

152 "Circus Fans Bringing Show here to Aid USO. " New Britain, Conn .. Herald, June 12 1942.

153 "Famous Horse Breeds At Circus in Yonkers . Favorites of Royalty Perform Country Show." Pleasantville, Townson, June 4 1942. Archive Circus Kavaljos, Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 46

democracy, the Promised Land. After Lucas had brought me some coffee I calmed down a bit. He was as naive, but it doesn't show that much on him. 154

Lucas toured with the Van Leer Circus all summer. Despite

being around an impossible person like Bernhard van Leer, it

still was a good time for Lucas Hoving and the other ex-Jooss

dancers, because they earned money. By the time the summer of

1942 was over, Lucas could forget about Circus Van Leer, its grumpy owner Van Leer, and the gypsy life he had led. Bernhard

Van Leer, who in 1941 had been accused of collaborating with

the Nazis, was acquited in the summer of 1943, and received the authority over his factory in the Dutch Antilles. The

circus had been a financial debacle, losing more than

$.450.000 according to Van Leer's son in a conversation with

Do la de Jong. 155 But for Lucas and the other dancers, the

circus had been a godsend.

In the fall of 1942, Lucas was allowed to enlist in the

Royal Dutch Army in exile, located in Guelph, Canada. Speaking five languages, having added Spanish during his Latin Amerian

tour with the Jooss Ballet, Lucas Hoving was chosen for

training as a wireless operator. Soon he received permission

to return to New York, waiting "as a displaced Dutch

soldier" 156 until he would be called in for more permanent

154 Interview with Dola de Jong, December 1994.

155 Ibid.

156 Jennifer Dunning, "Dance: Limon Company." New York Times, March 2 1986. 47

duty.

Lucas took Martha Graham's classes again, as he did

every time he returned to New York. 157 During those last

months of 1942, Martha Graham invited him158 to substitute

for another tall German dancer in Letter To The World, which

had been premiered at the Bennington Festival in 1941. 159

Merce Cunningham and Erick Hawkins were the soloists, and

Lucas was a member of the chorus of four men and four women.

In addition, Lucas performed a duet with Pearl Lang, who

became a Graham soloist. "It was my first performance with

Graham, and it was the opening piece of the night. For my

first entrance, I would jump towards center stage, landing on

one knee, after which PearL Lang would dive towards me and

land on the other knee. But Martha Graham always made the

costumes herself, to keep in control of her nerves. Then she would cut them apart, and sew them together again. That's what

she had done with my costume as well. In my first performance

157 After the first aquaintaince with Martha Graham's work, December 31 1939, Lucas took every opportunity to take classes with her and her company members. When still with the Jooss Ballet, soon other members of that company followed in his trail, and started taking Graham's classes as well. We don't know if the other company members kept on coming back1 but Lucas definitely did. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

158 Many Dutch articles, among them Ben van Eij sselstein in the Haagsche Courant, March 28 1958, mistakenly wrote that Lavina Nielsen also was taken in Martha Graham's company. Although Martha liked Lavina a lot, this was not the case.

159 Sali Ann Kriegsman, Modern Dance in America. The Bennington Years. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1981. It was the second time, the first time was with the Jooss Ballet, that Lucas got a chance to work with an important dance company because of war circumstances. 48 of Letter to the World, I made that jump again, landing on my knee, dead center, and krrrgh, I burst out of my crotch. As a reaction I closed my legs, causing the most beautiful Graham dancer I've ever known, to land on the floor instead of on my knee. I didn't know what to do for the rest of the piece" . 160

Lucas had a deep respect for Martha Graham, and it was very important to him to dance with her. But when he compared her with Mary Wigman, whom he considered along with Martha

Graham to be a "high priestess", Mary Wigman would come out first. She was closer to Lucas' roots in European modern dance, since Lucas took his first classes with Neel Kuiper, a

Wigman student. Lucas loved Wigman's breath and lyricism in dance, aspects which he also found in Jooss' movements. Except for Graham and Pearl Lang, Lucas found that most of the lesser

Graham trained dancers missed the breathing in their movements; Lucas perceived Graham's style as "percussive" and

"about positions" . 161 He also didn't like the arms of Graham dancers, "they looked terrible" . 162

Lucas loved the drama in Graham's dances. All his life he had wanted to be an actor, and with Florrie Rodrigo, Kurt

Jooss, and now again with Martha Graham, he could dance out his heart, dancing roles, "personages". However for Lucas,

Martha's work was non-romantic ("It all had to be modern art")

160 Interviews with Lucas Hoving, June 1992 and May 1995.

161 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

162 Ibid. 49 and too psychological. During one of the rehearsals, he remembered, he was constantly behind in phrasing, and "Graham kept on talking to me. Then, all of a sudden, standing behind me in rehearsal, she said to me 'Lucas, all your ancestors are here and looking at you'. Really, it worked on my nerves, as did those hands". Despite his criticism of Graham's technique, and although it was very hard on his body, as it was for men in general, he would continue some of Graham's "exercises", even in old age. He also loved performing and studying with her.

His relationship with Graham's psychological influences was more a love/hate relationship. "I thought she (Graham) was an amazing woman. From her I got that whole aspect that I'd never had from anybody else, a mystical quality and a Jungian orientation with all the elements of the orient" . 163 There was always such an atmosphere around her: on stage, during rehearsals, in the studio. When rehearsing I forgot about my adoration for her, because I was mainly concerned with being in the right place at the right time. " 164

Lucas also liked to take classes at the Graham studio, her' s in particular, and less the ones with her company members. According to Lucas, "They didn't get their energy streaming into their fingertips. They missed any sense about their spine as well. And while Graham's contractions were

163 Interview Susan Wal lock with Lucas Hoving, February 1985.

164 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 50 directed upward and out, many members of her company would perform them inward, hang in it. " 165 One of the company members who taught whom he disliked was Erick Hawkins, who would teach when Martha Graham didn' t feel 1 ike teaching herself ("She wasn't that occupied with the school any more, as long as it was rolling"), and who talked too much for a dance teacher. "For half an hour he would talk about the hands. And once we had started moving, and got a little bit warm, he would start talking again". "An impossible guy" and

"pretentious" were some of the words Lucas used to descibe Erick Hawkins, with whom he never was able to have any conversation. Nor did Lucas perceive Erick Hawkins as a dancer, although, he said, "Erick's solidity was very important for Graham's choreography". The way Lucas Hoving perceived the much younger Merce Cunningham was the complete opposite. Lucas loved Merce Cunningham : he was young and had beautiful feet. In class you could find Lucas always behind Merce, watching what he was doing. When they found out they lived two doors away from each other, on Twelfth Street in the Village, they would meet even more, leaving for home together after rehearsal . 166 Lucas' bond with Martha Graham was not only through her work, but also on a personal level. He alsways had a kind of sad feeling about her, "as if she needed comfort". He never

165 Ibid.

166 Ibid. 51 really found out how close this was to the truth, until he became part of her group. "She hid little bottles of vodka in the cistern of the toilet. And during or after rehearsal she had to go to the bathroom" . 167 Knowing this didn't effect his attitude towards her, it only fed his empathy for her, and their contact was often very joyful. They laughed a lot together and according to Lucas that was one of the reasons she liked him so much. Because of that, he, and later his wife

Lavina Nielsen, were among the few people invited to Graham's private apartment, close to her East Sixty-third Street studio. Lavina often would run over from rehearsal straight to

Graham, around five p.m. to do shopping with her.

Lucas described Martha Graham's apartment as "sinister",

"scary" and "lugubrious". Her apartment was filled with beautiful vases, with bunches of dead flowers in them; flowers which were never thrown away.

Not only did he work 'with Graham during the winter of

1942/1943, he was also working at the Roxy Theater. In his solo Growing Up In Public, Lucas says about his engagement:

To achieve the perfect chorus formations, they had numbers painted all over the floor. We wrote them on our wrists, 'cause for a certain step you'd have to be on number 25. And on the next step you'd have to be on 37 ... If somebody made a mistake ... Get away. That's my number . 168

167 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

168 "Growing Up In Public", p. 39. 52

During the time of his furlough, Lucas Hoving was

extremely busy in New York. There, in addition to rehearsing

and performing with Martha Graham, and running back and forth

to the Roxy Theatre where he did four shows a day and five on

169 Saturday and Sunday , Lucas was studying jazz, performing

with a road company of the Broadway show Hellzapoppin, and

dancing in Catherine Littlefield' s choreography Kiss for

Cinderella. 170 During that busy winter, dashing from one

place to another, "there was no time to take off my make

up ... So, there I was in the subway ... orange dayglow pancake on

my face ... big dark sunglasses ... and my Dutch Army

uniform". 171 Lucas was getting a strong sense of how

difficult and exciting it was to be an American modern dancer.

169 Ibid.

170 Biography Lucas Hoving. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

171 "Growing Up In Public", p.39. CHAPTER IV

A DANCER AT WAR172

World War II continued during Lucas' seemingly unlimited

furlough, but once again he had to go back to his regiment in

Guelph, Canada.

Then one day came the order. You're all being shipped to England tomorrow. I went to say goodbye to Martha. When she walked me down to the elevator, the moment I stepped inside, she tore a Mexican amulet off her bracelet, thrust it into my hand saying, "This will keep you", and the elevator doors closed. And as far as my dancing was concerned, they stayed closed for four years; four long years. 173

Lucas, after having received the notice, decided to

return to Canada, and join his regiment. He also decided he

would take along the woman he had fallen in love with, Lavina

Nielsen, and together they took the train from New York. In

Guelph they wanted to get married, on June 7th 1943, just

before Lucas had to leave for "The European Theater", as the

war in Europe euphamistically was called. 174

Lucas had learned about Lavina Nielsen through a friend

172 Most of the information used in this chapter is based on interviews with Lucas Hoving, June 2-8 1992 in San Francisco.

173 "Growing Up in Public", p. 39.

174 Elizabeth Zimmer, "A Wizard Comes East." The Village Voice, October 23 1984.

53 54

at Dartington Hall, who had a picture of this beautiful dancer

hanging on her wall. Nielsen, an American, had been a student

of Mary Wigman and Harald Kreutzberg and had studied briefly

with Kurt Jooss shortly before Lucas came on the scene. She

had to leave because she couldn't get her visa extended, and

she was also running out of money . 175 Lucas promised himself

to try meet her again, and finally got a glimpse of her three

years later, when the Jooss Ballet was performing at The

University of Wisconsin in Madison. Margaret N. H'Doubler was

head of the dance program, in which Lavina Nielsen was

teaching. Lavina saw Lucas perform; Lucas hoped she would come

to see him after the performance for a chat, but she didn't.

It wasn't until the Jooss Ballet had an audition in New York,

in 1941 176 that Lucas would see her in person. Lavina, who

177 was a beautiful dancer with beautiful feet , was accepted

after an audition; from then on they would be connected for

life. 178

Many people were surprised when they heard about the

175 Two days after she left from Paris, her visa arrived.

176 Ben van Eij sselstein, "Lucas Hoving teruggekeerd naar Nederland. Vakantie met ... zestien lesuren per week." March 29 1958.

177 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. Note that Lucas has a special interest in hands and feet, the extremities. See also "Growing Up In Public", p. 42, where he has several lines on the special hands he saw in his life.

178 Thus, Lavina became a member of the Jooss Ballet, during the Jooss Ballet's last year before it disbanded at the end of their sixth tour through the United States. 55

marriage between Lucas Hoving and Lavina Nielsen. It was

common knowledge in the Jooss company that Lucas and another

dancer, Dick Wyatt, a former Schoop-dancer, were lovers. There

was no question that Lucas was in love with his bride, but he

was also in love with Wyatt. Lucas was to struggle with his

bisexuality for most of his life; it kept determine his

artistic career, and lead to separations from Lavina followed

by reconciliations with her, as he was haunted by his

attraction to men.

The Guelph Daily Mercury had an article, June 8 1943, on

the wedding, under the heading "Netherlands Ballet Dancers Are

Wed", subtitled "Lovely High Noon Ceremony Performed in Saint

George's".

Simplicity was the keynote of a lovely wartime wedding yesterday at high noon when Pte. Lucas Hovinga of the Royal Netherlands Army exchanged gold wedding bands with the bride and former ballet partner, Lavina Nielsen of New York ... The marriage was performed by Archdeacon Scovil in St. George's Church at 12.15 yesterday. The bride was radiantly lovely in a jet black tailored suit with white blouse. She wore a corsage of gardenias and her juliet cap was also circled with gardenias. The attendants were Pte .. Jan Hoowij as groomsman and Mrs. Dola Hoowij as matron of honor ... she is a writer of s:ne note ... Mr. Hoowij is known as an artist and has had a showing in New York. Guests at the wedding included Cpl. Dazelaar, Pte. Fred Stenner, Mr. and Mrs. Onno Liebert, technical director of M.G.M.; Sgt. Vanta, First Lt. Teding van Berkhaut, Major Carp and Dr. Van Pritzelwitz Van der Horst. 179

The next day, Lucas stood on the boat in his army

uniform, ready to ship out, with Dola de Jong and Lavina

179 "Netherlands Ballet Dancers Are Wed. Lovely High noon Ceremony Performed in Saint George's." The Guelph Daily Mercury, June 8 1943. 56

Nielsen waving goodbye from the rocks, before they took the train back to New York. Although Lucas loved the sea, the boat trip of nearly three weeks180 to Wales, Great Britain, was very difficult. Sleeping with hundreds of men in the hold of the navy ship wasn't the most pleasurable experience.

You would sleep in a hammock, with all these men around you, three layers high. It was terrible. If you would sleep in the middle, you would have a body under you, above, and next to you; that was so oppressive. And when you had to go to the bathroom you had to creep over and under all these bodies. 181

As a dancer he was used to being together with people, also with a lot of men, but the situation on the ship was too much for him.

As soon as his regiment, the First Canadian Army, in which the Dutch volunteers were incorporated, arrived in

Wales, Lucas and his Dutch companions were moved to

Wolverhampton, where he finished his education as a wireless operator. His unit arrived in 1943. D-Day, June 6 1944, was still a long way off, and they were not a combat unit. Lucas heard from a friend, an Australian actor he knew from

Dartington Hall and who was an R.A.F. pilot, that he was working as a teacher. Lucas investigated the possibility of giving weekend workshops in dance for primary school teache,rs.

As soon as they found out he was a member of the famous Jooss

Ballet, he was given the opportunity to teach for the year to

180 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

181 Ibid. 57

come. During this teaching period he made a lot of friends.

Lucas never spoke much about the war period. It was only

recently he talked about some of his experiences. 182 Lucas

found the war was emotionally difficult, and often heart-

breaking; especially the bombardments of London and

Birmingham. "That was a terrible, horrible period ... Life was

extremely intense, and I lived on the tips of my fingers.

Thank God it never was that intense ever again" . 183 But he

also was glad he had had the experience "to see how different

people react to these hardships. I made a lot of friends,

teaching, and because after a night of bombardments of London,

some people would open up a lot the next day ,although the

English normally aren't that open".

One of the heart-warming stories about the war period

Lucas likes to tell, also because of the strangeness of the

experience, is about a bus trip, coming back from· a furlough

in London. Returning to his camp in Wolverhampton

... there was a bombardment, so we had to leave the bus, and we ran for our lives to an air raid shelter, down the stairs, in the dark, and into the water, which reached up to our waist. It was terrible, it was winter. Finally, we could get into the bus again. I sat in a corner in the back of the bus. I read a book about Rosecrucians under the light of my electric torch, with a blue glass filter. A man next to me watched me reading, and started talking to me. Then he said "We're getting off the bus over here, where are you going?" I

182 This interview was shard with Maryse J. F. Jacobs. It was only when she left the room, and Lucas was alone with the author, that he started talking in more detail about this intense period of his life.

183 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 58

told him "To Wolverhampton". "Why don't you come with us, dry and warm yourself, and then you can take another bus? The only thing is we have a lot of people in our house''; they had a spiritual seance overthere. So I went with them. During the seance the woman who led, said all kinds of things, while we had our hands on the table. That was all very interesting to me, I never had done something like this before. All these strange characters together. Then she said she had a message for Philip, and my second name is Philippus, but I never realize I have a second name. She started telling something about a sea captain and doing the drowning scene "I'm drowning, I'm drowning". But I still hadn't figured out the message had been for me, untill I reached the barracks. It was dark, and all of a sudden one of the doors opened, a guy like a ghost appeared, in this blue light, runs towards me, while another one started screaming "Philip, Philip". It wasn't before then, I realized the message of the seance had been for me.

Despite these interesting experiences, life stayed

emotionally very demanding for him. "Some people don't have

problems with it, but I, sometimes, really had big trouble

with it, because you never knew if you would see these people

again. nl84

There was also another side to being in a foreign

country as a soldier; one had the extra attention of many

girls. "The Dutch Army was enormously popular amongst the

British population, especially the women. Every now and then

we had parades of the English, Canadian and Dutch Armies. And

when the Dutch Army came by, these girls started waving, and

screaming. We really had a good reputation with the women, in

184 Lucas went back to Britain after the war, but he couldn't find anybody he had known during the war, which depressed him. 59

the cafes and so on". 185

The war continued, and by May 1944 Lucas' unit moved to

Bristol; they were prepared to take off for Normandy, two

weeks after the invasion by United Allied Forces on June 6

1944, had taken place. There is a flash of a memory of those

first hours in Lucas' solo Growing Up In Public:

A few hours earlier we had landed in France and all of a sudden there were those German planes shooting at our trucks, so we all got out and ran ... And I must have been running further and faster than anybody, until I found myself all alone on a beautiful summer day in France. Except for the horse ... a dead horse lying on the road. A beautiful young horse. It must have been running away, but the Germans got it .... 186

Through France, Paris, and Belgium Lucas followed allied

forces advancing further and further north, getting closer to

The Netherlands, his native country. In almost every village

he would climb the church-tower or church-building, to better

receive the morse coded messages. But in the fall of 1944,

after the failure of the allied troops to conquer the bridge

at Arnhem, the allied troops couldn't get across the Rijn,

Waal and Maas, the big rivers which separated southern from

northern Netherlands. The final winter under Nazi occupation

was the worst for the Dutch people of the northern

Netherlands. The Germans had seized all their food, oil, wood,

105 In terms of Lucas' preference for men a strange statement to make. It looks like he definitely wants to cover up his preference. In this light it is interesting to notice that, like any other human being, Hoving tells these memories which he wants to tell. He remembers that which will establish or confirm the image he has of himself.

186 "Growing Up in Public", p. 40. 60 bikes and churchbells to furnish their own troops. For the

Dutch there was nothing to eat but cats, dogs, and tulip bulbs, and they cut trees down for firewood. That winter, "The

Hungerwinter", Lucas lost hundreds of thousands of his fellow

Dutch through death by starvation.

Lucas himself was stationed in the Philips lightbulb factories in Eindhoven, the southern part of The Netherlands which had been liberated. One day he was on his way to climb a church-tower again, but couldn't find the way, because the

Germans had changed all the road signs. So they had to ask if they were still going the right way. "So on that road there was that one woman, and we asked her. She turned out to be a woman from Groningen. She looked at me, with those bewildered eyes, like a crazy woman, and her hair, dirty, uncombed, standing out to all sides, just like in a movie, and she asked me 'Are you Lucas Hovinga?'. An amazing experience".

By Spring 1945 Lucas' First Canadian Army had crossed the Rijn, Maas and Waal, and was heading for his place of birth, Groningen. It was a custom in his unit, that when a city or village was conquered, those units involved would get some time off and would have the opportunity to look for surviving family.

In our company we had two Jewish boys, really nice guys, twins, Sjakie and Bennie Rotstein. They had become really good friends of mine. At a certain moment we had conquered their city, and they went to look for their family. When they came back, and didn't say anything, we knew nobody survived ... They became even more attached to 61

each other than before. At the end of the war, you thought it was already over, we were crossing enemy territory with our radio jeeps, which was strictly forbidden. A stray bullet hit one of the twins, leaving the other more lost than before.

Assen, a city about 10 miles south of Groningen, soon was liberated, and Lucas thought it would take around twenty more minutes to get "home" again. It took three more days of heavy bombardments before the Germans surrendered. Lucas became more and more afraid he wouldn't see his family again, since refugees told him the center of the city where his father had a butcher shop, was gone. When the troops marched through Groningen, the population was waving at the Canadian troops. When they arrived at Lucas' sister's dwelling at the

Westersingel, all windows were covered with planks.

I knocked at the door, a dog barked and I thought "No people". A man came up to me and asked "Can I help you?", in English, since I wore a Canadian uniform with a beret and everything. Yes, I said, this is where my sister lives. "Oh, yes, I'll get her Lou" he said, and came back with my brother-in-law. He had helped the Canadian forces that morning looking for Nazi's, so he too started off with "Can I help you?". All of a sudden he recognized me, grabbed me by the hand and ran with me to the corner of the street where all the people were watching Canadian troops passing by. And my sister, a sterling woman from Groningen, jumped up and down on two feet, screaming "My brother, my brother". At first, after she had calmed down, I didn't want to ask rightaway if my parents were still alive or no; I hadn't seen them since I went to study with Jooss, in 1938. But they turned out to be okay. All the windows of the butcher shop of my father were covered with planks. During the bombardment of the city my parents had camped in their basement. When I met my father, he said "Aren't you somewhat old for the boy scouts?", referring to my uniform. That was scary; it seemed like he had become childish. But the next morning at seven a.m. he came to my sister's house, where I slept, to see if it was really me, because he couldn't believe it the day before. Now everything was okay again. 62

After the capitulation of the German troops in Holland,

May 10 1945, Lucas continued his work for the army. This time he worked for the Royal Dutch Army, as an interpreter between

German prisoners-of-war and Canadian officers. His work as a wireless interpreter continued, but it slowed down. In

Scheveningen, in the same sea resort he had performed Yvonne

Georgi's Hungarian Dances, his communications unit was stationed. In the same building where he worked as an interpreter, there was also a depot for army uniforms. Many

Dutch men wanted to enlist, because they at least had regular food. But the clothing warehouse was a mess, so Lucas, mentioning his experience with Van Engeland's clothing store to his lieutenant, and was given permission to re-organize the warehouse. That became his new job, quartermaster-sergeant. In addition to clothing, he also guarded food and coffee, which led people to come up to him every day, asking in a whisper

"Do you have some coffee for me," hoping Lucas would deliver some of the army's coffee to the Dutch black market; but he didn't.

Lucas' communications unit lived in a row of empty houses, left behind by N.S.B.ers {Nationaal Socialisten Bond i.e. League of National Socialists) who had fled with the retreating German troops. Since he was a sergeant, Lucas had a room of his own, with some carton boxes as bookshelves. The books he had taken from a house which the N.S.B. member had left, furnished and all. Some of his army friends had taken 63

silverware or blankets from these houses, although it was

strictly forbidden, and trespassers were severely punished.

But Lucas felt it was a waste, leaving these books behind in

these empty houses. Most of the books he took with him to the

army barracks, where he started a library, since most of the

soldiers didn't have much to do at night. And Lucas satisfied

a real need of his army mates since "these were mostly silent

guys, bookworms, not really the type to live the life of a

soldier".

A welcome change in Lucas' daily routines in the

"barracks", were his visits to his wife Lavina, in Germany,

Paris, or wherever she would be performing with the USO for

the American troops overseas. 187 On these trips all kinds of

things happened which seemed to Lucas very unusual.

I was stationed in Holland, and just came back from a visit of Vinnie in the South of Germany. I had hitchhiked by plane, and got stranded somewhere around Wuppertal. There were no more planes going that day, and although traffic was scarce, I wanted to try to find a hike, since it wasn't that far from Holland. When waiting near a crossing, a group of German youngsters approached me, and became aggressive. Just before it got out of hand, a door in a house on the corner opened, and a woman asked me to come in. That saved me, as if she knew I was in trouble. Once inside, all the food they had was put on the table, in a time when food was still rationed. That was quite an incredible experience.

The next morning Lucas continued his journey to his quarters

in Scheveningen.

187 Lavina later on did some things with the wives of Dutch soldiers as well. That became a disaster though, because of language barriers, according to Lucas. Interview June 1992. 64

The war was over, and as time went by, Lucas wanted to

change what he was doing. On furlough in 1946, he went to

England, to visit some friends, say "hello" to "the gypsies",

as he called the dancers with whom he had worked. On one of

his first days there he walked into a rehearsal of Agnes

DeMille, who was making a musical movie for Arthur J. Rank,

called London Town. As soon as DeMille noticed Lucas the first

thing she said was "Oh my God, an answer to a maiden's

11100 prayer , and continued, "Lucas, do you want a job?". He

answered "I'm in the army Agnes" . 189 But he got permission

from his superiors to expand his furlough and do the movie.

Lucas and Kay Kendall, who later on married Rex Harrison, had

the juvenile leads. Life changed instantly.

In the mornings, at six a.m., a limousine with a chauffeur picked me up, and brought me to the studios of Artur J. Rank, outside London. What a difference, from the army all of a sudden to the dresser, and stand-ins and so, freaking!

The movie, for which some of the shooting had taken place in

Holland as well, didn't become a success. According to Lucas

because "musicals don't suit the English" 190 as they do the

Americans . 191

188 Anne Murphy, "From Bu tchershop to Broadway, and beyond. " Ann Murphy mistakenly places London Town in 1947.

189 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

190 "Vluchtige ontmoetingen. Lucas Hoving, eerste solo dancer van Limon." Rotterdamsch Parool, November 28 1957.

191 About ten years later, on tour with Jose Limon, he would recognize his picture, and Kay Kendall's, on a huge poster when looking out of the window of a restaurant where he was eating. 65

As a result, Lucas worked with Agnes DeMille in New York again. In 1946 she gave him the lead in the Broadway musical

Bloomergirl . 192 That very same year Lucas performed in

DeMille's musical Tom Sawyer, "USA 1946". Lucas friendship and professional relationship with

Agnes DeMille continued throughout the forties. In 1948 he

danced in DeMille' s Rape of Lucretia193 and he spent some

194 time dancing in Oklahoma , one of DeMille's other

successful musicals. 195

When honorably discharged from the army in the Fall of 1946, Lucas applied for and was granted American

citizenship196 so it would be easier for him to work in the

192 Judith Green, "Constant Movement. Lucas Hoving fondly recalls a life in dance." September 1 1991, mistakenly put the Bloomergirl premiere in 1944, while Walter Sorell, "Hoving & co to perform at Pembroke" mistakenly cites Lucas Hoving with: "In 1947 Agnes DeMille asked me to dance the lead in Bloomergirl". A picture from the Netherlands Dance Institute, finally, shows Lucas Hoving dancing in Bloomergirl. with, according to the prescipt, "Jooss dancers and Lydia Franklin-Kocers 1946/1947"; see also Pauline Koner, "In the Beginning. Inventing Dance for Television." Dance Magazine, December 1993 p.58; Betty Jones also performed in Bloomergirl. According to Danskroniek, July 1946, year 1 no.1, Lucas went on tour with DeMille in July 1946.

193 "Biography Lucas Hoving." San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

194 M. E. Schwitter, op. cit.; Danskroniek, April 1951.

195 According to Lucas he only danced three Broadway musicals with Agnes DeMille, but his memory might have served him badly in this case.

196 "Lucas Hoving (achttien jaar Amerikaan) 'Holland is een andere wereld'", Parool, May 30 1964. 66

United States as a dancer. It gave him also more leeway as a

teacher. Besides stimulating Lucas as a performer, Agnes

DeMille also stimulated Lucas to teach. When she was asked to

set up dance training for war veterans in the American Theatre

Wing, she right away thought of Lucas and invited him to start

teaching "body development" classes for actors; his class

would meet at the auditorium of the former church on W. 4

Street . 197 Lucas created "an application of dance and general

movement principles to the needs of actors, rather than

dancers. He also offered a course in Jooss technique" . 198

Some actors and others really wanted to take Lucas' class, but

were "afraid it would be esoteric, chi-chi or just plain

'sissy'". But when they took a chance with Lucas, there was no

'sissiness' whatsoever. The reporter of the New York Post, who

attended a week of Lucas' eight week course wrote it down as

follows:

After a couple of knee-bending, throw-the-body-on-the­ floor-try-to-pick-it-up-again, stretch-the-thighs, throw­ the-arm-out-try-and-find-it exercises, we began to long for the good old days in the army with calisthenics before breakfast followed by a brisk run through the Obstacle Course" . 199

While the news reporter made "the supreme sacrifice and stayed

197 "School Helps GI' s Get Back in Show Business." New York, August 26 1946.

198 Isadora Bennett, "Dance on the American Theatre Wing. Professional Veteran's Program", Dance Magazine, November 1946, p.111-112.

199 Vernon Rice, "We go to Theatre School-Oh, Our Poor, Aching Back", New York Post, August 17 1946. 67

with the newspaper business", actors were so enthusiastic at

the end of the course, "they were lining up for registration

in an advanced course so they could have 'some more of the

same,". 200

While teaching at the "Wing" with DeMille, and dancing

in her musicals, Lucas also performed with Valerie Bettis, a

former Hanya Holm student, and by that time already an

accomplished choreographer. Her style was closer to

Lucas' preference in moving, with a lot of breath and lyricism.

Together with his wife Lavina Nielsen201 and the Katherine

Dunham dancers202 he performed in Bet tis' Broadway show,

203 Beggar's Holiday , a new version of the Dreigroschen Oper,

with music composed by Duke Ellington. 204

But Lucas hadn't turned away from modern dance. The

first years with Valerie Bettis he danced in her Yerma and As

I Lay Dying .... While on Broadway, he and Lavina205 joined

his former colleague Atty van den Bergh in her choreography,

In Memory Of .... at the Studio Theatre, at 108 W.16 Street.

200 Isadora Bennett, op. cit. p .112.

201 "Petits Battements", Danskroniek, March 1947, year 1 no.9 p.32.

202 Script on the back of a picture of the musical. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

203 "Biography Lucas Hoving." San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

204 M.E. Schwitter, op.cit.

205 Isadora Bennett, op.cit. p.111. 68

The same choreography was repeatedly performed in 1947: In

February at the Studio Theater, in March at the Central High

School of Needle Trades, and in July in the Choreographer's

Workshop. By that time Lucas' schedule was overloaded. The time of coming back in shape, after having left for the War, seemed to be over. By 1948, his life as a modern dancer was in full swing. CHAPTER V

LUCAS HOVING AND JOSE LIMON.

THE BEGINNING: 1948-1949.

Lucas Hoving and Jose Limon first met when they were

both daily students in Nanette Charisse's ballet class during

the winter of 1946-47. Lucas recalled dancing in the back

corner of her class, and "At the barre I liked to stand next

to another modern dancer, a Mexican, Jose Limon". 206 In his

comments about this experience, some forty-five years later,

he said: "We were two modern dancers who tried to get back into shape after the war, and if I got tired I would say to

Jose 'Let's sit down'". 207 Nanette Charisse's class was a

perfect place to start, since "she was more sympathetic to

modern dancers " 200 than other ballet teachers. In later

years, Limon's memory didn't coincide with Hoving's, when he

remembered "Lucas dancing in the front rows, tall, elegantly slender, fresh from Europe and the Dutch armed forces,

performing all the 'tours', 'brissees', 'jetes', etc. with the

206 "Growing Up In Public. The making of an autobiographical dance for Lucas Hoving, conceived and directed by Remy Charlip." Contact Quarterly, Dance Journal, Spring/Summer 1988. Volume XIII no.2, p.40.

201 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

200 Ibid.

69 70

deceptive ease of the expert. 11209 It is interesting that Hoving and Limon had somewhat different perceptions of their

participation in the ballet class, but they clearly remembered noticing each other in the period shortly after the war.

Lucas Hoving knew Jose Limon was already busy

choreographing210 and according to Limon "Lucas Hoving accosted me between 'pirouettes' and said that if ever I needed another man in my company he would be glad to be the

one. I replied that I would be very happy to have him, and

would give him first consideration. 11211 It was not until the Fall of 1948 that this happened, and it happened at a time Hoving was entertaining offers from Valerie Bettis, Catherine Littlefield and Martha Graham212 He chose to perform with

209 Letter Jose Limon to Pauline Koner, Betty Jones and Lucas Hoving, on the Tenth Anniversary of The Moor's Pavane. Stockton, NJ, September 1 1959. Betty Jones' Scrapbook. Limon Foundation, New York.

210 In an effort to make up for the war period, Lucas wanted to see anything there was. In this wave of enthusiasm, Lucas had seen one of Limon's performances as well. Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

211 Limon letter. Limon Foundation, New York.

212 Martha Graham had asked both Lucas Hoving and his wife Lavina Nielsen to become members of her company during a lunch session at the Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue, New York. Lucas said Graham asked Vinnie as well to make it more attractive for Lucas to enter her company, because there were enough beautiful female dancers in Graham's company. Three days later Limon asked him, and he accepted. Despite Graham's esteem for Nielsen ("She is possessed") , the consequence of Lucas' choice was that Lavina wasn't incorporated into the company either. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. At that time he was dancing on Broadway, in DeMille's Rape of Lucretia. Beverly Mann, "Datebook. An Eclectic 71

Limon's company. It was a new company which was creating new

work. He left behind earlier experiences with Jooss' and

Graham's long-existing companies, "with twenty-year members

who knew everything better than anybody else. Wiseacres.

Pedants. 11213

Limon was choreographing several pieces for a concert at

the Ziegfeld Theater. Lucas remembered "One day we talked in

the dressing room and we agreed that I should start rehearsing

214 a new work he was choreographing, a trio, La Malinche" •

The concert took place on March 31 1949. 215

Doris Humphrey, Artistic Director, was initially opposed

to Limon's choice of Hoving; she had also been opposed to his

choice of Betty Jones. Her reasons for being negative towards

these two dancers when they first joined was her feeling they

would not be able to dance in the style Limon knew. Hoving

came from Jooss, and studied with Graham; Jones came from

Broadway. Humphrey was also choreographing for the Limon

Company, and was very concerned these two dancers would not be

Master Tells Personal Tales." San Francisco Chronicle, December 2 1984.

213 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

214 "Growing Up in Public", Contact Quarterly, p. 40.

215 The Limon Company premiered Corybantic, nicknamed by the dancers Cory Frantic, because of the movements. Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. Mistakenly the Dictionairy of Modern Ballet, p.178, presents the premiere of La Malinche in Boston on May 31 1949, while Pauline Koner mentions April 1 1949 as the premiere date. Pauline Koner, Solitary Song. Durham NC: Duke Univerity Press, 1989, p.200. 72

able to learn and perform her works. 216 Humphrey was used to

creating work that was established by herself on her own body,

and than taught the movements to the dancers.

Before Limon started rehearsing La Malinche, he had an

217 all-female company • The writer Nik Krevitsky noted that

Jose Limon "undoubtedly the leading male of the modern dance"

had added a "new dimension" to his company. "For the first

time in the Jose Limon Company we are able to see Mr. Limon in

contrast to another male person rather than alone as a man in

a woman's world. 11210

Jose Limon had found in Lucas Hoving his natural

antagonist. While matching each other in height, Jose was an

earthy, dark, robust, Mexican born dancer with a long torso,

11219 and those "big Yaqui-feet • Lucas described himself, with

a touch of sarcasm, as "tall, blond and slender, the typical

216 Lucas anounced he would continue to study with Martha Graham, and would not take any Humphrey-Weidman classes at all. Limon respected his choice. According to Lucas, in the background of this conflict was "a sense of competition [between Humphrey and Graham] , al though I only know Doris' view. Graham became more famous than Doris, who had a sort of 'bitterness' over her, although that's not quite the right word. She had a feeling Martha had surpassed her. That was hard for her, especially since she had arthritis and had become crippled". Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

217 Lettia Ide, Betty Jones, Melissa Nicolaides, Myriam Pandor, and Jo Van Fleet.

218 Nik Krevi tsky. "Reviews of the Month. Jose Limon and Company." Dance Observer, May 1949, p.68.

219 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 73

11220 WASP ; he had long legs and a Dutch light-hearted energy.

Once on stage, these two contrasting qualities would evoke a

wave of electricity. Very appropriately, Ann Murphy, dance

critic, noted they "established one of modern dance' s most

historic male dance partnerships. 11221

The dance La Malinche would be performed by Lucas Hoving

for many years. It was his 'baptism of fire' with the Limon

Company, and the dance initiated the contrasting movements and qualities that were to characterize most of his and Limon's

work together. A program note gave a summary of the story

behind the dance:

La Malinche is a dance about the conquest of Mexico by Cortez. Its form is set in terms of a group of strolling peasants coming into a village plaza, performing their dance-play, and marching on to the next village. The dance-play itself, half history and half folklore, is based upon the following sequence of events: Cortez, on his arrival in Mexico, was presented 222 withMalintzin , an Indian princess, to act as his interpreter. Through her complete devotion to him and by her native astuteness, she enabled Cortez to conquer Mexico. Baptized Dona Marina, she became an important figure behind the rule of Cortez, and died a great lady. After her death, popular legend arose that her repentant spirit returned to lament and to expiate her ancient treachery. For her, no peace existed while her betrayed people were enslaved. As the wild Malinche, she returned

220 Ibid.

221 Ann Murphy. "Snapshot Biography of Lucas Hoving. " Photocopied. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

222 Malintzin was basterdized to La Malinche by the Spaniards. La Prensa, December 18 1949. Mexico City. 74

to lead her people in their struggle toward liberation. 223

La Malinche was danced by "Pauline Koner as the heroine; Lucas

Hoving as the haughty Conquistador and Limon as El Indio, the

11224 oppressed peasant ; Betty Jones, in her soprano voice

trained on Broadway, sang to the music of Norman Lloyd.

After the premiere, La Malinche was further developed

and tightened, and became a "brilliant naive theatre piece in

the spirit of the Mexican festival mystery plays. 11225 The

critic P.W. Manchester wrote that the work was "danced with a

mixture of simplicity and passion which such a work

demands" . 226 The dance showed the conflict between the

warring conqueror and the oppressed Indian peasant over La

Malinche. For Lucas Hoving, La Malinche was "0.K ... It was a

223 "Spencer Barefoot presents 1952-1953 season of Celebrity Concerts at the Veteran's Auditorium War Memorial Building, San Francisco." Program. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

224 Marcia B. Siegel, Days On Earth. The Dance of Doris Humphrey. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982, p.246. Jose Limon originally wanted to create this trio with Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins and himself. But, as Limon wrote, "the draft board had other choreography planned for me." Limon letter, Limon Foundation, New York.

225 Nik Krevitsky, "Reviews of the summer. American Dance Festival." Dance Observer, August-September 1949, p.98. With La Malinche, Jose Limon had started "a long succession of parables based on historical material and literary sources, in which the three dancers duelled and teamed up in different relationships, often supplemented by other characters." Marcia B. Siegel, op. cit., p.246.

226 P. w. Manchester. "American Dance Festival. New Humphrey Work Given By Limon' s Company." New York Herald Tribune, August 17 1957. 75 nice piece. I wasn't crazy about it. But sometimes I loved dancing this work in which Pauline Koner is torn by her

interest in both men, countryman and invader. 11227

A little later that same year, on August 17 1949, The Moor's Pavane ("Variations on the theme of Othello") , to music

by Purcell, arranged by Simon Sadoff, was premiered at the Second Annual American Dance Festival in New London,

Connecticut; for Hoving The Moor's Pavane always remained a landmark work in terms of his own creativity and performance.

11228 After the premiere Lucas felt "This is how it should be • The critic Louis Horst, whom Lucas always thought of as "my

11229 father f igure , wrote: "The performance by the quartet was on a very high level, especially the stunning portrayal of his

Iago role by Lucas Hoving, which was of an unforgettable

malevolent intensity. 11230

Lucas Hoving hadn' t expected the work would be a success, after all the last minute changes in choreography and music. ("Three times he changed the music, it made me

227 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

228 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

229 Naomi Mindlin, "Jose Limon' s The Moor's Pavane. An interview with Lucas Hoving. Dance Research Journal, 24/1 (Spring 1992), p.17. At another point in the interview, p.24, Lucas described Louis Horst as "this incredible, special person."

230 Louis Horst. "The Moor's Pavane. Seventh Premiere atDance Festival." The New London, Conn .. Evening Day, August 18 1949. 76

11231 crazy .) Like a doubting Thomas, Hoving reacted to Horst's

good review: "Well, it's Louis. Sweet Louis. " 232

The process of creating this work had become very much

of a collaboration between Limon and his cast: Lucas Hoving,

Betty Jones and Pauline Koner.

Both Jose and I are the kind of people who worked through our bodies, really ... We were perfect together. We went by instinct, in feeling, we sort of looked at each other. I looked at him first: what kind of things does he want and how does he use his body, his weight. The he let me do it. And then he looked at me again and tried to make the adjustment. 233

The Moor's Pavane "takes its theme of the basic plot of

[Shakespeare's] Othello. The four characters are on the stage

at the rise of the curtain and they never leave it. Here is

portrayed the tragedy of Everyman when he is caught in the

pattern of tragic living. " 234 The critic Nik Krevitsky wrote:

"It is more than a study of a man and the inevitable murder

which he commits out of jealousy instilled by his friend's

admonition. " 235

231 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

232 Mindlin, p. 24.

233 Mindlin, p .14-15. According to Lucas Jose was a very accomodating choreographer. "The poor guy would change it you know [I'd say] 'Jose don't change it, I'm fine the way I'm doing it", but many times Jose was the accomodating." Mindlin, p.23.

234 Program of The Limon Company, San Francisco, season 1952- 1953. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Jose Limon clippings.

235 Nik Krevitsky. "Reviews of the Month. Jose Limon and Company." Dance Observer, December 1949, p.151. 77

Dance and Dancers contained the following description of

The Moor's Pavane.

The characters in the programme are given as The Moor (Limon), His Friend (Hoving), His Friend's Wife (Koner) and The Moor's Wife (Jones). This avoidance of the names Othello and Iago is nothing but deliberate in a work that sets out not to portray the story of Othello, but to depersonalize that story, condensing it to its basic elements so that it becomes a generalised study of love and hatred. The ballet is ingeniously woven into the formal patterns of the stately Pavane ... Vestigial references to the play remain ... and the whole dramatic action of the dance is motivated by the tragic handkerchief. The slow-moving, shifting patterns of Limon' s choreography are exceptionally interesting. The purely decorative element in his dance ... seems to be concentrated on the horizontal plane, so that he retains steps of elevation for his emotional colouring, appearing to use jumps only rarely for their visual ef feet. The acting style he requires is rather impersonal, and would have more in common with Brecht than Stanislavsky. 236

Lucas Hoving approached the role of Iago as a Stanislavsky-

237 trained actor ; Jose would work with him "like Jooss: What

do you feel about it? What do you see? How could we get into

that character, become that person?" 238 Lucas Hoving

remembered the last section; after The Moor kills His Wife,

because he feels betrayed. Lucas tried to approach it from an

actor's perspective. II . .. when Koner and I cover up the

movement [of Desdemona's murder], and I then let [Emilia] go

236 Clive Barnes, "Limon in London. " Dance and Dancers, November 1957, p.15-16.

237 The following might suggest Lucas Hoving' s influence on the making of the work: "Despite the completely different techniques employed, The Moor's Pavane bore a strange similarity to an early Jooss ballet called simply Pavane, and using the Ravel music and basing its theme on a Goya-esque Infanta." Ibid.

238 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. 78 and say, 'Look. There it is.' I'm very restrained. I had to be low-keyed for the piece, but my motivation there was really almost madness. [And] in the very ending, there are tremendous changes ... (Sometimes he would actually say or hear the

239 words. )

First, I have the final thing when I hold her skirt. I go once more and say, "Listen, I've got a surprise for you ... And then I say, "Look. Here' s the surprise" . . . For the ending I am totally demented. I feel that I'm totally unfocussed. All we do is step back. I go back and strangle her and then Jose gets us. He throws us down and we once more crawl along the body. And the final gesture is sort of an apotheosis ... I don't think any of us realized our potential as actors. But you know, it seemed that it would have been impossible to create that piece or dance that piece- if there is not an actor in there. 240

During the creation of both La Malinche and The Moor's

Pavane, Lucas had the opportunity of working very closely with

Pauline Koner; a relationship that for him had both positive and negative facets. On the one hand, he shared with her his approach towards the roles based in his experience with the work of Constantin Stanislavsky, the great director/teacher.

That made the creation of the duet in The Moor's Pavane, the very last night before premiere night, so much easier.

However, there were times when Koner would get on his nerves as she would talk to him on stage, and in the studio while rehearsing. "During performance, in the most intense dramatic moments, she would whisper corrections ... closer ... not that

239 Mindlin, p.22.

240 Mindlin, p .19-20. 79

close " 241 Doris Humphrey, not Jose, would be the only one who

242 was able to tell her to "Shut Up" • But Hoving was flexible

and managed to work with her. He even found a positive side to

working with her: his dancing with "Pauline Koner, who was

quite small ... [was] very good for my second position plie", he

recalled. 243 In later years he would add:

You know, Koner is a rather difficult lady. But it was right in that role. You see she [kept] asking 'Come on, my skirt, and my handkerchief'. That seemed all part of the thing. And it was part of the thing. But it was right. [and] Betty was an absolute angel. Yes, it was just a real, incredible coming together of the right things. 244

The Moor's Pavane, a joining of four distinctive

talents, was on almost every program the Limon Company

performed after 1949. It grew with every performance, giving

the dancers more and more space to play with the material.

Growth didn't come by itself; Lucas consciously worked

245 on his Iago-role • Over the years, Hoving felt he had

"learned a hell of a lot in those fourteen years,"12

246 he recalled.

I tried to get more weight as I kept going on. In the very early [times], I was like a big insect ... It was just

241 "Growing Up in Public", p.41.

242 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

243 "Growing Up in Public", p.41.

244 Mindlin, p.24.

245 Lucas Hoving believed Iago was "THE strong character in the piece, really, because he takes the most initiative". Mindlin, p.19.

246 Ibid. I p. 21. 80

going over [the surface] . (and I did not like that quality in myself, although it was probably right for certain parts ... ) I became more aware of weight. And I found that a beautiful tool; I could get lighter and heavier 247 according to the place the character was in ••• I know for the first couple of years every performance was a time again that I would get deeper into the part. How [do I do] the timing, WHAT and how [am I] breathing with it and all 248 that kind of thing •

There were less serious moments during performance and rehearsals, when Jose and Lucas went beyond their intense artistic relationship. In the beginning scene of The Moor's

Pavane Jose would stand facing the backdrop, Hoving would

249 realize, "Jose ... you left your wrist watch on again" • As

Lucas faced the audience, "There, completely helpless, Jose would start pulling faces, trying to get me to laugh. But as soon as Jose would face the audience again, he would be back in his role". And Lucas admiringly added "Jose had that

11250 flexibility •

A running thread in all the commentaries about The

Moor's Pavane is the thundering electricity between Lucas Hoving and Jose Limon on stage, which made these performances unforgettable. Lucas, when being asked if he had any off-stage relationship with Jose Limon, said he didn't have the time for it. And besides that, being in rehearsal together with Jose

247 Ibid.

248 Ibid. I p. 16.

249 "Growing Up in Public", p.41.

250 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 81

was already intense enough. 251

The love of Limon and Hoving for each other, as both

passionate dancers sharing their love for their trade, could

easily be misunderstood, more so since both men had a

preference for both sexes. 252 Their relationship, and the

lack of clarity Lucas probably had about it himself as well,

are possibly clearly stated by him when he discusses the

relationship between The Moor and His Friend in The Moor's

Pavane:

Why does he [Iago] hate him [the Moor]? Why does he hate Othello so much? Why? Why? Why? There was some sort of big question mark always. Why? Olivier253 thought there was some sort of homoerotic thing there. Because there must be some reason for [Iago's] wanting to destroy the guy [Othello] . Obviously there was also a very great affection between these two guys. It is an intriguing thing to think about. 254

Roving's lack of clarity definitely had been stirred up by his

own indecisiveness in terms of preference for either of the

sexes. But here, two men, from two very distinctive cultures,

very different from the "American man", found each other in

dance, and possibly in their being immigrants as well. The way

251 Ibid.

252 Homosexuality probably wasn't as widely and openly accepted then; both artists definitely didn't feel any need of expressing this part of their being to a wide outside world. Hoving never mentioned it in the interviews, always seeming to avoid the subject. It is through interviews with others around him, Dola de Jong and Carla Maxwell that I their sexual preferences became clear.

253 Sir Laurence Olivier, the actor who played Iago in Shakespeare's Othello.

254 Mindlin, p .15. 82 they worked together, on a common physical and emotional level when creating their movements and roles, made them very much in tune with each other in their creative process. One was a passionate, guilt-driven Mexico-born painter-dancer; the other a Dutch, open-/free-spirited, tolerant musician-dancer. They were filled with compaasion for humankind, interested in the internal struggle of each human being. Limon lived with the past, on a broad scale; Hoving experienced the present in all its extremities on a micro level.

The first two dances in which Lucas Hoving created roles in the framework of Jose Limon's choreography were a major turning point in his artistic career. Until he worked with

Limon, Hoving had been in companies where he always was the junior member and he knew less than everyone else. Now, he was with a choreographer who was just starting out to do his own work and Hoving found himself in a new and important situation. He helped make these new dances, creating his own roles. Without the distinct personality, experience and creativity of Lucas Hoving and his fellow company members,

Betty Jones and Pauline Koner, Jose Limon would not have been able to create the masterpiece that became The Moor's Pavane.

Lucas Hoving was now part of a company where everyone's input was needed, accepted and respected. He was no longer involved with companies where pieces had been performed many times and he was being taught what to do. Now he had to create from 83 scratch, within the loose framework Limon established. Lucas

Hoving created and performed his movement vocabulary, in a lyrical but still masculine style, and he loved this process.

He was finally accepted and respected as an artist in his own right. CHAPTER VI

CONTINUING COLLABORATION, 1950-1957

YEARS OF SELF EXPRESSION THROUGH PERFORMANCE

When Lucas Hoving first started working with Jose Limon in 1948, they began to establish a process which was important for their individual development as well as for the realization of Limon' s choreography. The period from 1950 through 1957 forms the main outlet for Lucas Hoving's drive for self-expression through creating roles for Limon's work.

Less spectacular activities in this period, though financially important, were teaching and the duet program he created with his wife Lavina Nielsen.

The year after premiering The Moor's Pavane, the Limon

Company went to Paris in June 1950, with Ruth Page's Les

Ballets Americains. Later that year, in September, they went to Mexico. In Mexico City the company had a two week season at the Palacio des Bellas Artes, starting September 19. Because of their success they were invited to return Winter 1950/1951; they were in residency in Mexico City, where they rehearsed, performed and taught classes. On March 31 1951, two new dances were premiered in which the oppositional and complementary qualities of Hoving and Limon were further utilized and developed: in Dialogues (Dialogos) and The Four Suns (Los

84 85

Quatros Soles) . 255

These two dances never became a major part of the

Company's repertory, but were important as another step in

developing the collaboration between Hoving and Limon. Limon

wrote about Dialogues, which he had started at the American

Dance Festival the year before but had been unable to finish.

"The four people in the drama are symbols of the full circle

in Mexico's submergence and re-emergence, in exactly the same

manner that nature ordains the seasons on earth. 11256 Doris Hering's comments may clarify that this hardly came through,

257 and that was why the work failed to become successful :

The dance is a pair of duets for Mr. Limon and Lucas Hoving. It represents two conflicts in Mexican history-the first between Cortez and Montezuma, the second between Maximilian and Juarez. They are presented as two poles in the Mexican quest for liberty and self-realization. Unfortunately, the dancers never really leave the realm of the history book ... The conflict is academic rather than kinesthetic. 258

255 Lucas Hoving used this opportunity to create a duet with Lupe Serrano, a ballet teacher at the Academia de la Danza; La Tertulia, premiered the same date. Marcia B. Siegel, op.cit., p.256.

256 Jose Limon, "The making of the 'Dialogues'", Dance Magazine, August 1951, p.15.

257 John Martin's review of the American premiere of the work at the American Dance Festival, added to that: "The work is dramatic rather than lyric in line. . . There is less sustained movement, less purely choreographic phrasing, than there might be, and Norman Lloyd's music chooses rather to follow and emphasize these qualities than to supply the work with the lyric line they lack." John Martin, The New York Times, August 1951.

258 Doris Hering, "Outlook from New London, 1951." Dance, October 1951, p.49. 86

Nik Krevitsky, suggested that, despite the fact that the

material has appeared in other form in the past in works of

Jose Limon, there is also something new about it, which

presents a contrast in the treatment of the adversaries.

It is accomplished in an interesting fashion by having an actual combat in the first section, and a psychological encounter in the second, where the adversaries never meet face to face ... Mr. Limon' s own movements as Montezuma are a new departure for him, the gestures, obviously inspired by Aztec glyphs, imparting a strange two-dimensionality and authenticity to the movement patterns. Lucas Hoving as Captain and Archduke does a fine job of interpreting these roles. 259

It becomes clear that a pattern is being established

between Hoving and Limon in terms of choreography; one assumes

the movements and postures of the upstanding noble man, while

the other takes the role of the darker character. Betty Jones

recalled that "Limon always took the juicier ones" . 260

During the same residency in Mexico, with Carlos Chavez

composing the score, and Miguel Covarrubias creating the set,

261 Limon choreographed The Four Suns • Limon danced the role

259 Nik Krevitsky, "Reviews of the Summer. American Dance Festival. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London, Conn., August 16-19 1951", Dance Observer, August-September 1951, p.104.

260 Betty Jones, in a discussion with the author after class, at the Limon dance studio, 611 Broadway, New York, May 1995.

261 The critic Walter Terry liked the work: "It was, then, a monumental effort and if it was not, in its initial presentation, a monumental success, much of it was so stirring that the spectator sensed tha further rehearsals, choreographic revisions and sharper lighting would transform an absorbing piece into a genuine triumph". He stressed the importance of the work as such for the development of modern dance in Mexico. Walter Terry, "The Dance World. Builders of Mexico's Dance Art: Covarrubias, Chavez, Limon & Co." New York Herald Tribune, April 8 1951. 87

of Quetzalcoatl, God of Light, and Hoving Tezcatlipoca, God of

Evil, his brother. Both gods, according to pre-Hispanic Aztec

and Toltec myth, struggled over the universe. "In this legend

the world was created and destroyed three times (each time

represented by the symbol of a Sun) and the fourth is to be

the present state of creation, the enduring one. " 262 The Four

Suns are the Suns of Water, Air, Fire and Earth. Limon used

some thirty additional dancers, lots of them men from the

physical education schools in Mexico City. 263 Here there can

be seen the first steps Limon took in incorporating more men

in his choreography, paving the way for more successful works

later on, like The Traitor(1954) and The Emperor Jones(1956).

With less succesful efforts in between, like The

Visitation (1952) and Don Juan Fantasia (1953), Jose Limon

created three years later another work using his and Roving's

opposing qualities successfully. The Traitor was created as a

result of Limon's "horror at the execution of two Americans,

264 265 husband and wife , in peacetime , for treason and

Ricardo Mondragon, in a Mexican article, wrote: "The quality of the choreography didn't entirely correspond with the quality of the music, sometimes working confusingly and hard to read." Ricardo Mondragon, "De Ballet. Jose Limon." San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

262 "Dance. The Four Suns, a Mexican legend in ballet." Dance, June 1951, p.18-20.

263 Arthur Todd, "Mexico responds to modern dance and Jose Limon." Dance Observer, March 1951, p.39-40.

264 Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. 88

espionage against their country; and the spectacle of Russians

who in turn, abandoned their country and defected to the

266 267 West. " In a 1992 interview , Lucas Hoving described The

Traitor as an "incredible piece"; "Somebody asked me of all

the beautiful roles I danced in that period, what was my

favourite onstage memory; and I said 'standing still in The

Traitor' . " 268 Again, after The Moor's Pavane, Hoving and Limon used

their brotherly love-and-hate relationship to get to deeply

rooted roles in powerful choreography and performance. Hoving

remembered a powerful scene:

Across the tablecloth we held in the Last Supper scene we had our final confrontation. Then Jose, as Judas, would tear the cloth out of my hands, drape me in it violently and place a crown on my head in a mock coronation 269 gesture , then he kissed me on the cheek and slid down my body to the floor. The soldiers who had been tearing across the stage during all this, were now closing in, to

265 This period in history was part of the Cold War between the two opposing political and economical blocks: The West, under the umbrella of the United States of America, and the East, divided by two communist leaders, the former Soviet-Union, and China.

266 Jose Limon, "An American Accent." Selma Jean Cohen, The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1966, p.25.

267 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

268 "Growing Up in Public", p.41. A program note for the New York premiere, May 3 1955, quoted The Nazarene by Sholem Asch: "See, I go down into the nethermost pit, in order that you may rise in the highest to God." Playbill for the ANTA Theater, p .16. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center: Dance Collection, Lavina Nielsen clipping file.

269 See the beautiful picture of Matthew Wyslocki on the cover of Dance Observer, August-September 1957, v.24, nr.7. 89

arrest me and take me away. And I just stood. 270 After the premiere of The Traitor at the Seventh Annual

American Dance Festival, August 19 1954, the dance critic Walter Terry wrote the following:

The twisted movement helped establish the characterizations of Limon as Judas, and Hoving as Jesus; clearly, frightingly, the consuming jealousy of Judas is portrayed in angry gestures, great exhortation, twisted insinuations and clearly and strongly the unquenchable fire of Jesus' mission glows through action revelatory of purpose, dedication, faith, and a strangely appealing kindness steeled with sterness ... Lucas Hoving danced the role of The Leader with a dignity which was never drab, never self-righteous but at all times vital, urgent, commanding. 271 And Clive Barnes added to that, three years 1 a ter: "Judas has become the archetype of the man who, loving too much, must turn to hate. . . The relationship between the Traitor and the Christ-like leader is conveyed in all its

complexity. " 272 The choreography of The Traitor was an important landmark in Limon's career; it was the first work, except for Dialogues, in which he used an all-male cast on a larger

scale, while still working with the concept of Hoving and himself as equal adversaries. Louis Horst speculated that the forcefulness of the male choreography might "open the door to a wholesome future for all male dancers who suffer under the

270 "Growing Up in Public", p. 41.

271 Walter Terry. I was there. New York Herald Tribune, August 20 1954, p.294.

272 Clive Barnes, "Limon in London." Dance and Dancers, November 1957, p.17. 90

popular misconception that all dance of an artistic nature is

sissie." 2 n Without consciously pursuing it, Hoving was

pulled into a 'crusade' to rehabilitate the image of the male

dancer.

The atmosphere between the men in the company was one of

comraderie, as opposed to the jealousy of the women in the

company. Hoving and Sadoff would discuss company problems and

schedules together, and in the same dressing room, Limon would

draw his images for his dances. These three men had a lot of

fun together. According to Lucas Hoving, Simon Sadoff was

definitely the

... court jester. Jose often called him, and then Simon had to tell jokes-the dirtier the better. And Jose roared with laughter. And there were nights that I thought,"I've got to get myself together, I don't want to hear him tell dirty jokes tonight." Like Traitor, I really had to get into that man. And then Jose sometimes told dirty jokes and screamed with laughter, and [he would] hit me on the shoulder [and say], "Lucas-laugh!" And [I'd respond], "Jose, please, I've got to be Christ in a minute." But that was Jose. 274

Jose Limon continued working with an all-male cast when

he created Scherzo the following year, but Lucas wasn't part

of it; he loved the other men dancing the piece, but he

himself was too busy teaching, and choreographing his own work

273 Louis Horst, "American Dance Festival". Dance Observer, August-September 1954, p.101.

274 Mindlin, p.20. 91

with his wife Lavina. 275

At the Empire State Music Festival in Ellenville, NY,

Hoving and Limon premiered The Emperor Jones, on July 12

1956. 276 When it was performed again, at the American Dance

Festival, P.W. Manchester wrote: "Additional opportunities to

rehearse and perform Emperor Jones have turned it into a

striking, and at times almost shattering piece of theater ...

a study of disintegration. " 277 Based on the play of Eugene

O'Neill, Manchester felt the dance stood on its own and

knowdledge of the play was not necessary. Simon Sadoff

arranged the Heitor Villa-Lobos score.

Clive Barnes wrote about the work after it had been

presented in Great-Britain during the Company's European tour.

He has developed the theme in terms of free fantasy, seeking to express a human being's moral and physical disintegration from fear... The fantasy episodes of Jones' s decaying dreams of grandeur, when he is haunted by the memories of his past actually achieve the aim expressed in the programme note, of giving the play another dimension ... Lucas Hoving as The White Man made him a worthy antagonist-the manner in which he gives, during the hallucinations, a series of distinct sketches of a chain-gang overseer, master of a slave ship and slave auctioneer, was masterly in its imaginative grasp of the role. 278

275 That year they choreographed Satyros (Summer, Autumn), Time of Innocence and Ballad.

276 Danskroniek, October 1956, p .167.

277 P.W. Manchester, "American Dance Festival. New Doris Humphrey Work Given by Limon's Company." New York Herald Tribune, August 17 1957.

278 Clive Barnes, "Limon in London." Dance and Dancers, Great­ Britain, November 1957, p.16. 92

This study of disintegration was presented as a story in

dance about the power struggle between two men; between two

forces who want to lead and conquer, and about their anguish

and uncertainties. Pictures at the end of the dance, show

Lucas Hoving, as the White Man, taunting Jose Limon as the

Emperor Jones. "The swaggering tyrant is finally reduced to a

grovelling and pitiful figure". 279

In this work, Hoving and Limon reached the height of

their long collaboration in terms of portraying antagonistic

and complementary characters. Emperor Jones, together with The

Traitor and Scherzo became the backbone of an all-male program

with which the Limon Company started touring. "The audiences

reacted surprised to the all-male cast" 280 Hoving loved the

program, because he liked the works, not so much because of

the male aspect of the works. 281 Maybe not consciously, but

more in the flow of events, (chracteristically for Lucas), he

contributed to the emancipation of the male dancer.

The Limon company comprised several dancers who were

choreographically active. Lucas performed in works of Pauline

Koner and Ruth Currier, as well as in works created with his

wife Lavina Nielsen. Artistic director Doris Humphrey

choreographed many works during the 1950s for Jose's company

279 Arthur Todd, "Transatlantic Exchange. Limon for London." Dance and Dancers, September 1957, p.13.

280 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

281 Ibid. 93

as well.

Jose Limon did not participate in the works of Koner and

Currier in which Lucas performed. Humphrey's choreography

allowed Limon and Hoving to continue their collaboration as

performers, but this took on a different dimension with her

work. Her choreography for the Limon Company utilized Hoving

and Limon in less of a dualistic role and made them more

integrated into a larger body of dancers. 282

Night Spell (1953) had its origins in a dance

choreographed by Humphrey in 1951 called Quartet Number 1.

(The renaming of the dance followed some minor choreographic

changes) . It was the first dance for Humphrey to explore "the

conflict of love and fear enacted within the

subconscious. " 283

The brief text in the program ("The one asleep cries out: What is in me, dark-illumine.") is the clue to the dream phantasy ... the movement which Miss Humphrey has created for the three figures is weird, exciting, dramatic and new. The strong contrast of the color of the three spectral images against Mr. Limon's healthy glow of color, the dif ferenc between his lyric and dramatic movement and

282 A lot had to do with the different approach towards the use of the sexes by the two choreographers. "Limon based several scenarios of dramatic dancers for an all-male cast, on the conflict bewteen two powerful men, played by himself and Lucas Hoving ... and in general he tried to choreograph for the particular qualities of men as contrast or compliment to those of women, rather than in subordination to women ... Doris Humphrey could use men for their tenderness and women for their 'strength' looking for a more androgynous society to express." Marcia B. Siegel. Watching The Dance Go By. "Siegfried's Revenge", p.105-106.

283 Doris Hering, Dance Magazine, as quoted in p. r. folder The Limon Company, approximately 1953-1954. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Jose Limon clippings. 94

their strident and staccato gestures, the phantasy of their translucent costumes against his, all add up to a thrilling dance. 284

Night Spell was the first piece by Humphrey that Hoving

was in and for him, it wasn't satisfying. With his love for

lyrical movement, he didn't like Humphrey's style "It never

felt good. It had to be modern. It couldn't be lyrical, or

symmetrical, oh no, impossible. 11285 Hoving tended to like

works with a more specifically dramatic flavor. 286 "The

character was not interesting to work with. We were spoiled

with all these beautiful choreographies [of Jose] . 11207 Betty

Jones said they felt like "underwater creatures 11200 Humphrey

pretty much determined everything about the roles herself,

which was difficult for the freedom-loving-Lucas. On a lighter

note, the piece was nicknamed Night Smell by the dancers,

because the blue cloth they used as a prop hardly got washed

284 Nik Krevi tsky, "Reviews of the Summer. American Dance Festival." Dance Observer, August-September 1951, p.104.

285 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. It wasn't until Lucas Hoving saw Virginia Tanner and Lola Huth dance, after the death of Humphrey, that the technique meant anything to him. Mindlin, p.18.

286 Doris Hering ("Outlook From New London 1951." Dance, October 1951, p.47) mentions that "Quartet was not a drama.filled with movement. It was a movement structure from which drama emerged."

287 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. Lucas added: "That wasn't the case for Ruth [Currier], who probably had a different feeling."

288 Betty Jones, as recorded by the author, at the American Dance Festival, Durham NC, July 1992, Tribute Night Lucas Hoving. 95

because "it was so huge. 11289

In New London, at Connecticut College, during the summer

of 1953, Doris Humphrey created a dance that was considered by

many to be extremely evocative, and Lucas Hoving was given a

major role, as The Son. Ruins and Visions was given its

premiere on August 20 1953, and "was a far more complex work

than any of Humphrey's other works in which the action of the

real and the unreal is poetically interwoven. 11290

Lucas Hoving was very positive about this work. He felt

he "received a beautiful role ... , I loved the opening with the

swing; the work had a clear and dramatic character, and Koner

291 and I could decide how to create our own roles " • This was

important for the free-spirited Hoving. 292 Ruins and Visions

was for Hoving the exception to the rule, in terms of

Humphrey's choreography, as he "didn't feel carried away in

her dances. " 293 The work had eight dancers, the most

289 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

290 Walter Sorell, "Limon at New London", Saturday Review of Literature, September 1959.

291 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

292 On opening night, Lucas Hoving and Lavina Nielsen, being strong performers, in the heat of the performance, both unconsciously changed movements. Doris Humphrey abhorred it, she wanted it performed the way she had envisioned it; her timing, her rhythm. Lucas and Lavina tried to get as close as possible to what she wanted, but "Vinnie and I didn't have her training." Strangely enough it was these changes about which people kept on complimenting Humphrey after the performance. Interviews with Lucas Hoving, June 1992 and May 1995.

293 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. 96

important ones, next to Hoving and Koner, were Limon, Jones and Nielsen. Ruins and Visions was inspired by Stephen

Spender's poem The Fates, and dealt with the different realities of life; the reality of a possessive mother and her

son; the reality of the theatre, of the streets. "Miss

Humphrey has taken a text from another poem by Spender to give

the ballet a hopeful, assertive ending. " 294 The dance opens with a mother and son on a swing. The

first scene deals with the protected world the mother has

stipulated for her son. 295 In the second scene, the mother and son watch a theater play, in which the actor kills the lover of his wife, and then his wife. Mother and son applaud politely, but don't seem to be part of this theatrical reality. In the third scene mother and son walk through the

streets, a reality she didn't want him to get to know. In the fourth scene, all realities come together when the son goes to war, and is brought back, dead; his mother was not able to avoid this. The working process between Humphrey and Hoving was quite different from the one he was used to with Limon.

Doris didn't talk much, although she probably knew exactly what she wanted. But to us, she stayed vague. Vinnie and I wanted a lot more, and Koner was really hungry for information; she squeezed it out of Doris. Betty didn't

294 Clive Barnes, "Limon in London." Dance and Dancers, November 1957, p.17. 295 Robert Sabin, Dance Observer, March 1954, p. 41, writes about this first scene: "the sinister first scene, so cool and pleasant on the surface, and so poisonous in its undercurrent." 97

need that, she never had to talk about it. And I, I felt almost frustrated wanting to talk about it. 296

Hoving found his role in this dance quite satisfying.

I had the role of The Son. He was not a happy character, not a vital sort of guy. That's my impression probably. There hangs a certain shadow over that character's life. I think it dealt with growing up. And towards The Mother, I felt love. She was a dominant figure. Maybe that wasn't in the script of the play, but Koner tried to be as dominant ON stage as she was OFF stage. 297

Robert Sabin gave him a worthy compliment: "Lucas Hoving, as

the Son, [did] one of the maturest things he has done, both in

movement and time. 11298

It was during the period of working on both pieces by

Doris Humphrey, that Lucas noted the change in Limon's role

from choreographer to student and protege. While Jose was a

strong leader when he choreographed himself, in working with

Humphrey, and having his wife Pauline Lawrence around, he was

transformed into a humble personality. "Jose acted like a kid

with these two women. If after a performance Pauline Lawrence

would say to Jose 'Get another shirt', he would say, 'Eh, eh,

yes, Pauline' and would do it. Unbelievable. It annoyed me

dreadfully. " 299

In Limon's successful creation of There Is A Time ...

(1956), it was the first time Lucas Hoving was not used as

296 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

297 Ibid.

298 Robert Sabin, "Reviews of the Month. Jose Limon and Company." Dance Observer, March 1954, p.41.

299 Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995. 98

Limon's antagonist. The Limon Company went on tour to Europe

in Fall 1957. It was during this tour, that Hoving began to

feel he wanted to stop his performing career. He wasn't sure

about his future plans or what else to do. (directing, acting,

teaching), but he had a definite sense of "battle

fatigue". 300

300 Dutch newspaper, no name nor date. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam. The Netherl~nds. CHAPTER VII

NEW DIRECTIONS, 1957-1971

FINDING A PATH OF HIS OWN

While Hoving continued to work with Limon for short

periods of time, his main focus gradually started to shift

towards his own choreography and teaching. After the European

tour finished in December 1957, the Limon Company began

undergoing change with new interests of its members. Hoving

wanted to stay in The Netherlands, and do other things than

performing; and Koner, once back in New York, didn't want to

take part in the new massive works Limon was planning. 301

Limon himself had a break with Doris Humphrey which he didn't

make public. 302 After the 1957 tour, which gave him

recognition as a choreographer in his own right, he felt more

comfortable about his own creative work, and no longer wanted

Humphrey in the role of a strong mentor. 303

After the European tour finished, Hoving decided to

301 Pauline Koner, Solitary Song, p. 227.

302 Marcia B. Siegel, Days On Earth, p.287-288.

303 Presentors had taken works of Doris Humphrey out of the repertory during the tour because audiences couldn' t appreciate her work as much as American audiences had. Consequently, the core of the program was formed by Limon's work, and the box office success Sa tyros, choreographed by Hoving. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

99 100

return to his roots in The Netherlands, to spend some time

with family and friends. He combined pleasure with his own

drive to keep on teaching. He soon started teaching in several

places in The Netherlands simultaneously; two schools in

Amsterdam, with former collegues Poons and Rodrigo, and one in

Rotterdam, with Nel Roos, a total of sixteen hours a week. He

even went for a short while to Essen, West-Germany, to teach

in Kurt Jooss' school. Thereafter he choreographed for the

Scapino Ballet, and Het Ballet der Lage Landen (Ommegang). He

stayed in The Netherlands for almost six months, and found he

enjoyed the concentrated attention to teaching a great deal.

In June 1958 Lucas Hoving returned to the United States

to teach at the American Dance Festival in New London,

Connecticut. Because he had been away, he was not cast in

Limon's new works Missa Brevis (which he adored) and Serenade.

The following Fall, Doris Humphrey's arthritis became worse,

and she asked Hoving to take over her composition classes at

Juilliard. In the long run, after Humphrey died in December

1958, he became a regular faculty member. Humphrey's death

created a vacuum in the Limon Company; the binding factor

disappeared, and the company went through a serious period of

readjustment. Limon missed his mentor, despite his self­

confidence as a choreographer. Koner had nobody to look up to

anymore, neither somebody to tell her to Shut Up. 304 Lavina

Nielsen, Betty Jones, Ruth Currier as well as Koner missed

304 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 101

their source of inspiration, and friendship. Lucas Hoving

seemed to be least touched by Humphrey's death, despite the

fact he loved her as a person. Jo 5

During the 1950s Hoving and his wife Lavina ("Vinnie")

Nielsen had a program of duets which they performed in a

variety of colleges; they were hired by the American College

Association, which put artists in colleges who didn't have the

financial means to do it them themselves. But after the

European tour, with so much jealousy going on amongst the

women in the company, especially stirred up .by Kaner,

06 according to LucasJ , Lavina decided to stop dancing and

spend more time on designing costumes for other

choreographers. Jo 7 Hoving didn't try to keep her from

quitting; "Once she had something in her head, she didn't have

it somewhere else," he said.JOB As a result, they abandoned

their duet program during this time.

In 1959 Jose Limon created one last work in which he

Jo 5 Lucas thought Doris Humphrey was a very interesting lady. She was intelligent and bright, a little strict, and had a sense of humor he liked. He got to know her well, since Lavina and he lived close to the studio, at 56th Street, so Humphrey often came over for dinner. Interview with Lucas Hoving, May 1995.

Jo 6 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

Jo 7 During the 1950s Nielsen had designed costumes for Ruth Currier and for Lucas Hoving' s choreographies. In the early sixties she created them for Hava Kohav Dance Company and David Wood's choreography The Sea Years. Source is the computer of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. After asking where this information came from, it probably is backed up by programs, nobody was able to give a more exact answer. JOB Ibid. 102

returned to the duality between himself and Lucas. This work

was a trio, with Betty Jones as the third dancer, called The

Apostate, and it was the last work specifically created for

him, and in which Hoving created a new role for himself. By

August 1961, Hoving "had seen what I wanted to see ... the work

11309 with/of Jose became less interesting , and he was looking

in different directions. In an interview with the Dutch

newspaper De Telegraaf, the forty-nine year old Lucas Hoving

stated at the end of his seventh period of seven years:

I'm working my way out right now, I only did his [L:irrcn's] South American tour this season and the most important cities in the United States; but from now on I want to try it myself ... I feel I'm on a turning point in my career, and I don't know yet which way I'm going. Maybe I stay director/choreographer, maybe I start acting and teaching. I really don't know yet. 310

Obviously, Roving's duality about being an actor or dancer hadn't reached a decisive point yet.

Lucas Hoving would thereafter maintain a connection with

the company and perform the roles he had created, through 1963, when the comapny went on tour to the Far East. After

that he only returned in 1967 to perform his role in The

Moor's Pavane at the White House, when President Johnson

309 Ibid.

310 Lucas Hoving, in De Telegraaf, August 31 1961. After teaching in Sweden, and just before a holiday in Mallorca, Spain, Hoving was in The Netherlands to direct rehearsals for the Scapino Ballet in Amsterdam. It would be a preparation for his coming directorship of the Merry-Go-Rounders, Fall 1961, a performing group for children based at the YMHA in New York. No author, "'In Nederland is zoveel talent, ' zegt Hoving." Telegraaf, August 31 1961. 103 requested a performance of this work with the original cast.

Shortly thereafter The Moor's Pavane was performed at the

American Dance Festival that summer, and eternal ized on celluloid by Jack Venza for WNET. 311 About these performances

Lucas recalled:

We really got out of the mothballs for that, Koner and I ... The movement, for all of us, I'm sure, had changed. We adjusted. And particularly in the solo bits. Or sometimes, indeed, we said, "It never works out.Let's try this.' The fights thing between Jose and me, was kind of tricky. Some of the things with Koner are very tricky. But a piece that you've danced for fourteen years is in your bones. You don't have to get it back. It is there. 312

After 1963 Lucas Hoving stayed in close contact with the

Limon Company and served as a coach and rehearsal director.

Carla Maxwell, current artistic director of the company, recalled that Lucas would come in and rehearse Missa Brevis, as well as other works for which he had created major roles.

An electricity would come into the rehearsal when Lucas and

Jose started demonstrating and coaching. Lucas also took over

Doris Humphrey's role when she was artistic director; he would clean up and even try to change some of Jose's choreography.

Carla Maxwell's memories illustrate this and the relationship which still existed between these two former dance partners.

[Hoving:] "what is that supposed to be there, a line?" "No, Jose told us to make a clump." "Well, let's get it more organized." ... Jose would attack choreography like a sculptor; ... carve out big round shapes and then leave it. And then somebody else would come and polish the stone. So Lucas was the one ... Sometimes Jose wanted that,

311 Mindlin, p .17.

312 Ibid. I p. 1 7. 104

and sometimes he wanted to be left alone ... It was also interesting to watch Lucas rehearse with Jose. I think he [Jose] probably could do one or two turns gorgeously, and end in suspension, but he always wanted to do three or four turns, especially in Missa. And Lucas would say 'Jose, why are you pushing yourself to do four turns, while you could one or two beautifully and suspend?' And Jose 'Eh, Eh, yes, yes, Lucas', and then while Lucas would be there he'd do it gorgeously. Come the performance, he'd be pushing and hopping all over the stage ... Before Lucas would come in as a guest artist for The Traitor, Jose would put the whole piece together, and he kept on saying to me 'We'll fix that when Lucas comes in.' And when Lucas came in, it was a whole other thing. All of a sudden that electric charge was there. And Jose acted differently because there was a peer, and they had that electricity between them. Before, Jose was with all these young people, just commanding their energy and attention ... 313

It began to emerge that Hoving was interested in

choreographing, and spending more time at this. He had created

solos, done work for himself and Lavina Nielsen during the

1950s; one of the duets, Satyros, became a mainstay of the

314 1957 tour through Europe. Wall of Silence , premiered

August 18 1960, at the American Dance Festival, was his first

major group piece. The dance definitely bore the traits of

having similar themes as Limon's, since it was created around

"the cancer of mistrust eating at the heart of friendship and

love. It only requires the brutality of whispering lips, the

violence of the averted gaze, for civilized man to wall out

313 Interview with Carla Maxwell, September 22 1994, New York.

314 The members of the group were Dutch dancers Pauline de Groot, Bettie de Jong, Koert Stuijff, and American dancers Carl Wolz, Nancy Lewis and Patricia Christopher. Walter Terry didn't think it was 11 a memorable work ... although it has certain interesting qualities of mood and design. 11 Walter Terry, "Dance. American Dance Festival. 11 New York Herald Tribune, August 22 1960. 105

the innocent, their voice missed only after it has been

silenced. 11315 Wall of Silence was Roving's first try-out after years of indecisiveness, not knowing which path in life to take.

Within the previous year, he had been an actor in the first

cast of Sound of Music, and had directed two operas for the

Peabody Art Theater in Baltimore. 316 But the period of wandering around in the field of non-dancing was closed off by a return to the dance studio one day. "It was like being back

home. Then I knew I couldn't let go of it. And soon afterwards I started working with my own company. "317 While heading the Merry-Go-Rounders, and co-directing Contemporary Dance Inc., Lucas Hoving started off in the first half of the 1960s with a trio of dancers, Chase Robinson,

315 George Beiswanger, New London. Conn., Evening News, July 28 1962. Doris Hering also noted that The Moor's Pavane came to mind, because of "its mingling of formal patterns and emotional episodes." Doris Hering, "Lucas Hoving and Company." Dance Magazine, February 1963, p.55.

316 These were Mozart's The Magic Flute, James Cohn's The Fall of the City. For his choreography career it is important to mention Weldon Wallace's comment after the premiere of The Fall of the City: "Lucas Hoving did a splendid job in contrasting the movements of a single figure with those of the community. The chorus moving about the stage seemed not merely a group but a collection of persons. The patterns were striking in design and meaningful dramatically." Weldon Wallace, "Music Notes. Double Bill at Paebody." The Sun (Baltimpore), March 2 1960. Two months later, Hoving directed Riddle of Sheba, in Yonkers, with Limon dancers Nancy Lewis, Patricia Christopher, Harlan McCollun and Chester Wolenski. Joseph Morgenstern, "Riddle of Sheba. A Fable. Given at Yonkers Temple." New York Herald Tribune, May 23 1960.

317 Walter Sorell, "Hoving & Co to Dance at Pembroke. "No newspaper nor date. Probably 1968. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. 106

Patricia Christopher and himself, all tall dancers. As Lucas

recalled, "I was fed up with working with people who came up

till here, " 318 gesturing his hand up to chest level, and

referring to the small women in the Limon Company. Out of

necessity, Lucas created the ideas and movement sequences for

all works himself, since both dancers "couldn't come up with

319 320 one step" • This was the period Lucas' poetic and

humorous side were explored to the utmost. Some of the works

he created during this period were Strange To Wish Wishes No

Longer, Has The Last Train Left?. and Satiana. Hoving on

purpose had chosen to work with a trio. "The next best thing

to solos is making duets and small groups because everybody's

humanity gets totally acknowledged. " 321 The trio became quite

successful P.W. Manchester desribed them as "a wonderful team;

beautiful accomplished people working selflessly together, in

choreography perfectly attuned to their particular talents and

graces. " 322 They performed mostly on the college circuit; the only exception was the tour in 1964 when they went to England

and The Netherlands.

318 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

319 Ibid.

320 In Random Notes of a Contemporary Romantic, Lucas Hoving notes that one of the main sources of life and choreography are poets. Rilke, Lorca and Peguy were his most favorite poets. He based Strange To Wish Wishes No Longer on a poem by Rilke.

321 Ibid.

322 P.W. Manchester, "New works enliven dance festival." Christian Science Monitor, 1965. 107

Most reviewers commented on Roving's humor; indeed a

rare treat in modern dance. Walter Sorell wrote about Hoving' s

first eveningful performance at the end of 1962.

It became quite obvious that his forte lies in a humor that has satiric overtones without being biting. It is telling, but he tells what he has to say as if he had just dropped a thought in passing. His creations are not tightly constructed. They are not moving with dramatic logic and inner force. 323 Doris Hering wrote about Lucas' work in 1963 focusing on his

development and what seemed to her as a joy in creating

movement. She thought he "is at his most effective when

dealing with irony" but she definitely missed

... "inevitability" ... Mr. Hoving seems to turn out choreography because he enjoys, and skillfully employs, its craft. He is not driven to it, and so his dances do not always incandesce. Mr. Hoving' s style has deepened and mellowed during the past year. 324

Doris Hering wasn't far from the truth. Lucas Hoving

325 never had seen himself as a "born choreographer" , but moved from performing to teaching, and from teaching to

choreographing, whenever he felt like doing that. 326

While contemporaries like Graham and Limon pref erred to work

from inner pains, Hoving pref erred to look for poetry,

coincidence, irony, and plain fun of life. He had an open view

323 Walter Sorell, "Reviews of the Month. Lucas Hoving and Company." Dance Observer, February 1963, p.24.

324 Doris Hering, "Lucas Hoving and Company." Dance Magazine, February 1963, p.55.

325 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

326 "Random Notes of a Contemporary Romantic." Dance Perspectives, nr.38 (Summer 1969). 108

towards life, a "Hey, there's an open door, let's go through

it" mentality. Hoving is a man of serendipity; it was the pleasure of the present, not the pain about the past, which

determined his choreography. He incorporated his past moments at pleasure in his formal dances, such as his clownesque circus experiences with Van Leer in the forties. He incorporated his vaudeville experience in The Netherlands of

the thirties in dances like Strange To Wish Wishes No Longer,

Satiana327 and even more Has the Last Train Left?, about which Clive Barnes wrote: "The humor is gentle, genial yet often touching, particularly in the case of Mr. Hoving himself, who looks like a dispirited Buster Keaton, forever

def lated. "328 The final work for the Trio, in which Hoving could manifest all his skills in humor, dancing, voice, poetry, theatricality, drama and the absurd, was Satiana (1965). It

was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and commissioned by Connecticut College and this represented an acknowledgement of Roving's own choreographic work. Satiana became one of his more successful works for the Trio. Clive Barnes wrote about Satiana, which was set to music of Erik Satie, that it was ... a neat excursion into the milder landscape of

327 Max Tak, Dutch critic wrote about Satiana: "The choreography moved along airy lines, in which this part of the audience at least, every now and than, thought to recognize a caricature of the lost variete." Max Tak, Elsevier, June 11 1966.

328 Clive Barnes, "Dance: The Village Theater's Series." The New York Times, May 2 1967. 109

Dada ... Even so, Mr. Hoving truly played his part, and the piece ends with perfect Dada where mr. Hoving, completely enveloped in green chiffon, stumblingly clambers into the grand piano. 329

One of the most important works to emerge from this

period was Icarus, also created for the Trio. Christopher and

Robinson, along with Hoving, were part of the Limon Company's

Far East tour in 1963. It was in Japan that Hoving was able to

watch traditional Japanese theater forms such as Noh and

Kabuki.

If I didn't perform, I was in a Japanese theater. That music, their dance, it is fascinating. Ever seen Kabuki? That simplicity, the austerity! What happened there at the old courts is in our society nowadays very modern. I of course used that in my own program. It inspires. 330

When he returned he had these impressions and inspiration in

his backpack, ready to come out when he wanted to choreograph.

He started working with Christopher and Robinson in their Trio

again; the Icarus premiere was on April 5 1964 at the 92nd

Street "Y" in New York.

The dance was described by P.W. Manchester.

Chase Robinson's Icarus, caught up in the ecstasy of flight and the attraction of the sun, falls to earth yet still tries, with a desperate longing to raise himself again. Lucas Hoving, as the anguished Daedalus who wrought his son's death, holds the boy up by his legs, which still tremble in a last effort to recall those moments of glory, which he, alone of all men, has experienced. Patricia

329 Clive Barnes, "Dance: New London Fete." The New York Times, August 21 1966. P.W.Manchester described Satiana as "a trifle-but a witty and amusing one to match the wry musical and verbal jokes of Erik Satie." P.W. Manchester. "New Works Enliven Dance Festival." Christian Science Monitor, 1965.

330 "Lucas Hoving (achttien j aar Amerikaan) 'Holland is 'n andere wereld.'" Het Parool, May 30 1964. 110

Christopher, in her long oriental robes of gleaming cloth, has the economy of movement of Japanese dance as she glides slowly accross the stage, creating the heaven in which she moves, calmly pursuing her appointed course and gazing with gentle wonder at the intruder. 331

The dance was performed often, and critics were positive

about the choreography. Clive Barnes, in 1966, wrote: "Merely

by having Mr. Robinson writhe on the floor, Mr. Hoving

forcibly suggests a falling body. This is real

choreography. " 332 Al so in 19 6 6 , Dance Magazine noted: "Here

the dramatic content and the dance shape are so tightly fused

that the three characters, Daedalus, Icarus and the Sun, seem

part of an inevitable ritual. 11333 Many dance companies were

interested in performing Icarus, and Hoving sold the

performing rights to some fifteen companies around the

world. 334

During 1966 Lucas found that working with two people in

the Trio, who weren't able to create any steps themselves,

wasn't that fullfilling, despite the enormous success they had

with his work. What Hoving had in common with his former dance

331 P. W. Manchester, Christian Science Monitor, 1965.

332 Clive Barnes, "Dance: New London Fete. Ruth Curriere and Lucas Hoving Provide Excursions into Satire and Dada." The new York Times, August 20/21 1966.

333 Dance Magazine, October 1966, p.81.

334 When Hoving sold Icarus to Alvin Ailey, Ailey said: "You know my audience, so I make it a little bit more jazzy." Hoving had to laugh about it and responded "Oh, well, sure, just do." The tight golden costume of the Sun was changed into a peacock's attire, with a lot of colors. It hurt Lucas, but he had the feeling he couldn't do anything about it. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 111 partner Limon, was that he didn't like imposing his material on other dancers. In an effort at finding out which movements and ways of working were his, it had been interesting for a while. However it wasn't the way he wanted to work and he couldn't continue this way.

By the end of 1966, developing ideas parallel to the ones circulating in society in general about co-operation, togetherness, and a gypsy-type of life-style, Lucas Hoving expanded the Trio into a larger body of dancers. "The specific technical level of the dancers wasn't that important anymore.

It was more important If I could be on the road with that person, and having fun. 11335 He picked members of his company from Juilliard students, and other dancers he had worked with before.

Hoving also started experimenting with new ways of working and new forms. While himself interested in Zen, his choreographies started showing a "Zen-like" atmosphere, with critics complaining about his choreography going nowhere.

Rough-in (1967), his first work created for eight dancers, has some of those traits.

There seems to be a tragic content in Lucas' premiere of Rough-in. I am not certain what the intent was. Chase Robinson, dancing with nobility in the principal role, appeared to be imprisoned by an unconquerable destiny. He encounters a man with a rape and girls carrying black flowers ... (the entire group was costumed in black by Lavina Nielsen) . Finally the girls threw their flowers down; Robinson fell over, inert; and a single girl busily

335 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 112

began to pick up the gloomy bouquets. 336

Using large numbers of dancers was new for Hoving as was the

attempt to comment on society. Earlier works of Hoving's were

for the Trio and tended to be focused on the inner world. 337

At the same time, Hoving moved away from dictating movements

to his dancers, and let them develop their own vocabularies.

His feel for freedom became more and more apparent. The

consequence was that his choreography started lacking clarity,

as mentioned by the critic about Rough-in. His choreography

was composed of a thin line of brainwaves which went from one

association to another; in doing so, Hoving belonged to the

avant-garde of that time "who tried to get away from the

338 logically ordered dance forms of the past" • Rebecca Rust

thought "the work exemplified the divergent and personal

directions which dance choreography is taking today. " 339

His choreography didn't seem to go anywhere, was "non-

directional", had a Zen-like association. It was a performance

of moments, of life. Deborah Jowitt illustrates this view very

clearly.

336 "Lucas Hoving and Company", Dance Magazine, October 1967, p.35 and 73.

337 In an 1992 interview, Hoving stated again he never made something political, and that he only went for the dramatic aspect of the dance, and is only interested in what's going on in the hearts of human beings. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

338 Jim Greif, "Hoving explores new dance forms." The Duke Chronicle, October 22 1969.

339 Rebecca Rust, "Dance Team Production Is Original." W&O, October 15 1969. 113

. : . it's as if they are building toward something they never reach. Fragments seem about to adhere, then softly drift apart. Not deliberately, but helplessly, as if neither Hoving nor the dancers were aware that anything had been about to develop. 340

Another aspect of his experiments during the late

sixties, was the use of nudity. Based on the suggestion of one

of his dancers, Hoving thought to make Icarus a nude dance, as

dancing without clothes had become intriguing for many dancers

and choreographers. Lucas Hoving himself described the event.

When was that musical Hair again? That was the first time people were naked on the stage. And we had a guy in the company, Seamus "Jimmy" Murphy. He always asked "Can't we do something naked as well?" I thought it was O. K .. One morning we had to rehearse Icarus and he would dance the role of Icarus. Then he said "I would love to dance that role naked." We were on tour, in a small college, somewhere in the midwest. "Well, I really don't know." "Can I try it this morning in rehearsal?" ... "Okay, let's try and see how it looks like." I sat in the audience, lights fade, the introduction began, and I heard all kinds of noises; the Dance Department came in, all girls. I couldn't scream "Don't ... ", so I thought 'For Heaven's sake.' So these girls all sat behind me, with their dance teachers. And of course, Jimmy came on stage, stark naked. And I was thinking of all those girls behind me ... But I know we didn't do it at night, he had to wear a small dance belt . 341

Also connected to the spirit of the late sixties, but

more in a political sense, was a work Hoving created in 1969;

it was related to unrest and rebellion on college campuses

because of the involvement of the United States in Viet Nam.

It made a strong statement and was an unusual work for Hoving

since he had not choreographed any political works prior to

340 Deborah Jowi t t, "City (Dance) Center. " The Village Voice, May 21 1970.

341 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 114

342 this. Called Opus '69 , traditionally oriented critics had

their problems in dealing with this work. Tom Borek, in Dance

Magazine, wrote: "His choreography suffers because he [Hoving]

strains to make his dances hip, really hip. " 343 Students on

college campuses thought it was marvelous. Hoving was trying

to break down the barriers between audience and performers,

and this piece succeeded in doing that, through its contents,

and by performing on stage as well as in the streets.

When Opus '69 was performed at Union Theater, University

of Wisconsin, the response was extremely positive.

Opus '69 which closed the first act, was the favourite of the evening. In a sort of tribute to the passing decade, Mr. Hoving dealt with the conflicts and yearnings of today's society, largely from the point of view of who inherited it. The dancers, in happy garb, and emblazoned with legends such as "Make Love Not War", writhed and intertwined, responded to rock rhythm, and retreated and expanded in alternating fear and courage. At the end, the house lights went on before the surprised audience could applaud and the dancers filtered down the aisles still very much absorbed even at close range. The ovation, when it finally came, was enthusiastic and peppered with bravos. 344

This work was also performed at the anti-Vietnam

demonstration in Washington D.C. in 1969, which Lucas Hoving

so vividly recalled during an interview in 1992.

342 "When I couldn't find a title, than I just would call it Opus something, and the year behind it. " Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

343 Tom Borek, "Lucas Hoving Dance Company. " Dance Magazine, July 1970, p.78.

344 Sondra Enos, "Hoving Dancers Are Well-Received. One of Today's Finest Contemporary Dance Companies." Wisconsin State Journal, December 17 1969. 115

I remember we went there. I had a kind of hippy dancer, a guy with long hair. We had to ask for directions all the time. You should have seen the faces of the people in the small villages sitting in the cafes and their anti-long­ hair attitude. Washington D.C. was fantastic. Something happened there, and I never found out how it ended. Behind the White House, there is a very long avenue with fountains and ponds at the end. At a certain momment, all these thousands of people started to run towards the fountains while throwing off their clothes; that started all with dressed people, and ended with completely naked people. I always wondered how they did find back again their own clothes. I also have pictures of us dancing at the demonstration, because I had a piece which suited very well, was beautiful, I mean very interesting; that was also a pretty political piece. We had danced it earlier behind Juilliard, on Riverside Drive, on the streets, and it started fantastic. When the curtain rose, there was a body on stage; there were all kinds of riots at that time when they started to shoot. 345 So that guy laid down, and all kinds of people came up to him, asking him "Are you alright?". There was very loud music through the speakers, but these people thought that guy had had an accident or so ... 346

Lucas Hoving enjoyed working with young people, thought

people should listen to the youth of their time, and was very

sympathetic with their views about American intervention in

Viet Nam. "People have to listen to the youth, but not through

347 violence" • When a bomb explosion destroyed an electricity

cable, just before a performance in Santa Cruz, California,

Hoving became scared and restless. It was then he decided to

leave the United States, and try to find a teaching job

elsewhere, in Europe.

345 Hoving was either referring to the event at Kent State in Ohio, or the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

346 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

347 Lucas Hoving, in: Willy Vermaas-Beek, "Lucas Hoving: 'Jong Holland is Heerlijk' ." Algemeen Dagblad, September 16 1970. 116

The first opportunity Hoving had, was teaching in Stockholm, Sweden, during the winter of 1970-1971. By Spring 1971 he received the offer of becoming director of the

Rotterdamse Dans Academie in his native The Netherlands. He

accepted. That summer he returned to the American Dance Festival to premiere his Zipcode, with an integrated solo choreographed by Pina Bausch. Zipcode illustrates the way Hoving often worked in this

period. Lucas "selected [the title] Zipcode from some instruction on a Kleenex box. As for the imagery, the company

members were asked to make improvisations based on newspaper

photographs which they brought to rehearsal. "348 Besides new material, he would also use phrases or parts of phrases from

earlier works, as he had been doing for his choreography for

the Rotterdams Danscentrum the year before. 349 After the premiere of Zipcode, August 1971, the audience responded with a standing ovation, and Doris Hering wrote: He [Lucas Hoving] seems modestly to have taken the place of former Connecticut idols like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Louis Horst and Jose Limon. And that's perfectly sound. Young people DO need idols. After the summer of 1972, Lucas Hoving disbanded his company; his job as director and teacher at the Rotterdamse Dans Academie, The Netherlands, was too time and energy

consuming to continue his work as company director and

348 Doris Hering, "Lucas Hoving Dance Company. " Dance Magazine, November 1971, p.84, 87, 88.

349 Willy Vermaas-Beek, Algemeen Dagblad, September 16 1970. 117 choreographer in the United States. Through 1992 he would continue to return for the summer to the American Dance

Festival, 'limiting' his activities to teaching and coaching new generations of modern dancers. CHAPTER VIII

THE TEACHING OF LUCAS HOVING

FROM 'EXTRA EARNINGS' TO FIRST PASSION.

When Lucas Hoving looked back on his life, he thought

there had been no escape possible from becoming a teacher.

For several of us there was an inevitable pattern: Graham student Louis Horst student Louis Horst assistant Teach beginners' classes, etc. And at first you didn't know why you did it or how you should do it, but then, eventually you saw. 350

What Lucas Hoving did know when he started teaching, was that

it wasn't his primary concern: his main focus was towards

11 performing. ••• when I started, I only did it because I wanted

11351 to earn something extra, to have a certain solid income ;

he couldn't know he would become "very fond of this work, and

feel very privileged that he can do it. 11352

Lucas Roving's formal teaching career dates back to the

time right after World War II; Agnes DeMille was the one who

350 Lucas Hoving, "Random Notes of a Contemporary Romantic." Dance Perspectives, no.38, Summer 1969.

351 11 Geesj e Lunshof, "Lukas Hovinga leert dansen zonder a , p.124. No name nor date. Probably 1966. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. In the same article Lucas Hoving states he started teaching as an assistant of Louis Horst.

352 Ibid.

118 119

at the American Theatre Wing gave him his first experience353

teaching stage movement classes. Hoving used "dance to give

actors good physical freedom and control". 354 It was at the

same time that he attended Louis Horst's classes in

composition.

Louis Horst taught two courses. One was the pre-classic music and dance-forms, the other contained all the modern forms, about music, but also about painting, architecture, all the characteristics which were different from the traditional periods. Those courses were so beautiful. I decided to do his courses, both courses, several times. He taught them in the Graham studio, and I was there a lot for classes or rehearsals. For me it was more than dance, for me it was part of the education I never had before. And one time there were so many students at the American Dance Festival, that Louis Horst asked me to become his assistant. 355

Lucas Hoving became Louis Horst's assistant during his

first summer at the American Dance Festival in New London,

Connecticut, in 1948, where he performed with the Limon

Company. For over ten years Lucas taught pre-classic dance

forms together with Louis Horst. 356 Additionally, Lucas

353 Lucas taught acting and dance classes for children in The Netherlands during the 1930s with Iet Last-Verhaar. During the war Hoving taught dance classes to primary school teachers in England, but he doesn't consider that as formal teaching. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

354 Text accompanying pictures. No author. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. Pictures show Lucas in front of an all-male class, doing traditional warm up movements. Vernon Rice, "We Go To Theatre School-Oh, Our Poor, Aching back." New York Post, August 17 1946.

355 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

356 Danskroniek mentions Lucas Hoving was invited to assist Mary Wigman at ADF in the summer of 1951. There is no confirmation of this. 120

Hoving, like Ruth Currier, would illustrate Horst's lectures,

to music of Erik Satie. 357

With performing in Limon's Company as his main focus,

despite the limited time they would spent together through the

year, Lucas and his wife Lavina Nielsen also set up a teaching

and performance program for American colleges. They were hired

by the American College Association, "an organization which

brought cultural programs to those colleges who couldn't

afford it". 358 Lucas and Lavina developed a duet program,

which was based on what they thought college audiences wanted

to see: a dramatic duet, initiated by role development, a

359 comic dance called "Sorry for the Road" , an abstract dance

piece, based on music and two solos. Lavina's solo Three

Medieval Ladies of Sorrow was created to the music of three

medieval songs. Neither Lucas nor Lavina was really satisfied

with their program, but it served the purpose: introducing

college audiences to modern dance. In addition to performing,

Lucas and Lavina also taught one or two master classes

together in each college. Lucas did the talking and explaining

357 Thomas Hughes Ingle, "Dancers Exemplify Horst Tracings of Development of Modern Dance." New London. Conn .. "Evening Day", August 4 1953. In this period Hoving was very much into early twentieth century music. He created a lot of work to music of Satie, Poulenc and Bartek.

358 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

359 Text accompanying picture. No author nor date. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. 121

and Lavina showed the movements. 360

Despite the fact Hoving and Nielsen loved touring and

teaching together, their one-night-stands were in the long run

not that satisfactory. Longer lasting satisfaction came from

Hoving' s teaching on a regular basis at the Third Street

Musical Settlement in New York City, or as dance director of

the school of dance connected to the Sil vermine Guild of

Artists361 in Connecticut. 362

Around 1955, modern dance as a discipline wasn't that

widely known and respected outside New York. Roving's class

was described as "creative dancing", and compared with ballet

as "less demanding. . . anybody can take up this type of

dancing, even in the middle years". 363

Mr. Roving's students may undertake a series of exercises which begin to the sound of the primitive percussion of the drum beat and culminate in a symphonic movement to the music of Hindemith. The areas of rrovement whether at the bar, on the floor or in aerial motion are graceful, firm and strong. The objective is to prepare the body for a limitless array of patterns, through the most intricate and complex gyrations and extensions, natural and contorted.

By the mid-fifties, Hoving was at the end of his first

360 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. Lucas considered their program successfull, because they were always able to personally connect with people in their classes and audiences.

361 Norma Stahl, "Conversation with Lucas Hoving." Dance Magazine, August 1955, p.45.

362 Most of the fallowing information has been extracted from John Vassos, "Why-Modern Dance?". Fairfield County Fair, March 17 1955.

363 Ibid. 122

seven-year period of teaching, and his attitude towards it had

turned one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. Originally he had seen

teaching as a way to earn extra money but now he saw it as an

important aspect of his life.

As a dance student you train and train with one master after another, and when the training is over, how do you find what belongs to the masters and what is really you? ... I think there is one thing - teaching - that can help one discover one's identity .... I am myself finding in teaching what is my own style of movement ... When I started to teach I began to be conscious of weight in the body, and counter balance. I started to call this weight 'center'. Then I remembered. Years ago, Jooss had called it that. It never meant much to me until I discovered it for myself. Then it became valuable for me. 364

In the years to come, teaching became more and more

important to Lucas Hoving; he gained a lot from teaching, as

a person, a professional dancer and later on choreographer. He

considered the classroom a safe environment for the teacher to

experiment, just as his students did. "When you teach, you see

what you are doing in a way you never see just by dancing. It

comes back to you as in a reflecting mirror". 365

Lucas Hoving encouraged other dancers to teach.

According to him teaching is not only a tool for dancers who

are accomplished artists, but it also might give dancers who

aren't quite there yet the means to find their way towards

364 Norma Stahl, p.44-45, 54. Notes: " ... if you don't know the weight of your body you won't know the lightness of flight. And isn't that our one solid piece of heritage: to fall, crawl and to stand up and run." Lucas Hoving, "Random Notes of a Contemporary Romantic."

365 Norma Stahl, p. 54. 123

becoming more mature artists. It is up to the dancers themselves if they want to use that road. "For example, my

wife Lavina Nielsen, does not teach. She has no wish to. " 366

Lucas Roving's urge, and desire, to teach became stronger and stronger. Especially in The Netherlands he wanted to share his experiences with his collegues: "I would like to

see those Dutch talents they' re there develop. I'm

convinced, the Dutch modern dance can be improved. I would

love to be here for half a year ... ' 367 Lucas took his half year off after the stressful tour through Europe in 1957. His plan was to visit family and friends; in practice he combined visiting friends, former

collegues, and teaching. From January368 through March 20 1958, Lucas Hoving taught eight hours per week in

369 Rot terdam , and also at Corrie Hartong's Toonkunst

366 According to Lucas, the faculty at the University of Wisconsin had pressed Lavina to teach in her younger years, against her will, which made her very reluctant to teach again. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. During the same period, the 1950s, his wife Lavina Nielsen had several abortions. It seemed to have encouraged Lucas' drive to teach more and more. Vermaas-Beek: (1969) "I think I love teaching ... I was married to a dancer; a dancers couple just can't afford to have children. Maybe that's why I like to pass on something to other people." It's not clear if both Lavina and Lucas didn't want to have children. Lucas (1992) said Lavina didn't want children, but according to his friend Dola de Jong (1994), it was Lucas.

367 M. E. Scchwitter, Wereldkroniek, October 22 1955. 368 Pictures of his teaching at Corrie Hartong's studio carry the date January 22 1958. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

369 Rotterdamsch Parool, January 14 1958. 124

Academie, fullfilling his dream to come back to this city

370 which he described as an "American City" • In addition he

taught five hours a week in Amsterdam in the Scapino Ballet

371 studio and with his former Rodrigo-collegue Karel Poons ,

in Florrie Rodrigo's and Nel Roos' studio. After these

commitments in The Netherlands, he substituted for Kurt Jooss

in Essen. 372

That half a year he was in The Netherlands was for many

people related to the world of dance too short; critics wrote

they'd love to have him over for a much longer time to improve

the quality of Dutch modern dance.

Thanks to information and the way it goes in the Dutch dance world, the teaching and work of Lucas Hoving with our ballet companies can't be called decisive. We have become one-sided more and more, and government intervention has stimulated that one-sidedness. The idea 'classical ballet' has become synonymous with 'the art of dance' in our country. In this artistic concept there hides a danger. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to use Lucas Roving's presence for an urgent addition. The way he would be able to sense his art, the art of dance, in our country, should be considered by others and by himself. 373

370 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

371 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. There, he inspired the seventeen year old Dutch dancer Koert Stuijff, who came from "a wild family, one of the gypsy kind".

372 "Ballet der Lage Landen", no date nor author. Netherlands Institue for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. See also Eva van Schaik, Op Gespannen Voet, p.137. He took the talented Koert Stuijff with him as an apprentice, so he would be able to learn different angles and approaches towards modern dance, as Jooss was teaching it in Essen.

373 Ben van Eijsselstein, "Lucas Hoving teruggekeerd in Nederland. Vakantie met. . . zestien lesuren per week." Haagsche Courant, March 29 1958. Twelve to thirteen years later Lucas would 125

Lucas Hoving also felt he wanted to give something more

permanent to dance in his home country. 374 As one of the

Dutch newspapers wrote, it would be "a style, which maybe,

after our character, [will be] somewhat more narrative than

the pure aesthetic art of ballet". 375 The road would be a

difficult one, more blocquades had to be overcome. Hoving

: " ... the emotions and 'feel' for the modern are there, but

afraid to show themselves. " 376 As always, Lucas Hoving also

saw signs of hope, since audiences were changing. "Certainly

the younger generation, with its own share of 'beats' and

'nozems' 311' is a less inhibited audience than the carry into effect the order of the Dutch government to restructure dance education at the Rotterdamse Dans Academie, fullfilling Ben van Eijselstein's cry for change.

374 Jose Limon stated that "the Low Countries already have their own ideas about what to do" in modern dance... Barbara Pollack, "Jose Limon & Co. in Europe." Dance Magazine, April 1958, p.75-79. How necessary it was for the Dutch world to find a voice of their own, might follow from the fact that Lucas was "one of the few Dutch choreographers who had been choreographing for a Dutch ballet company for years. And the share of foreign choreographers grew by the day." Eva van Schaik, Op Gespannen Voet, p.102.

375 Article C14. No name nor date or author. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

376 No name nor date, p. 51. Netherlands Institute for teh Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

377 'Nozems' were a distinct group of youth, coming from the lower and lower-middle class. They grew up in the 1950s, shortly after World War II, in a period of fast economic recovery (The famous Dutch "Economic Miracle"), were very out going, moved in groups on their mopeds, and adherred to Rock-and-Roll. Nozems strongly opposed everybody, who felt their acts were justified just because they "had experienced the War." 126

parents' . 378 As a last act of inspiration, Lucas Hoving used his

talents to talk about dance and presented May 13 1958 a lecture in the balcony room of the former Palace Noordeinde,

under the auspices of the United States Information Service and the House Committee of the Institute of Social Studies. He seized the opportunity to fight for the incorporation of choreography in the curriculum of the Dutch dance academies.

Hoving had seen the importance of this in American universities; it would be the instrument for the Dutch to create a voice of their own. Unfortunately, at this lecture there were few people present from the Dutch dance world; only

some people from the American Embassy and students from the

Social Studies Institute attended. 379

Lucas Hoving would stress the importance of composition/improvisation during his whole career. Hoving mastered composition through his studies with Louis Horst,

teaching as Horst's assistant. After 1958 he, at first, substituted for Doris Humphrey at Juilliard (later on he became a faulty member), and during the sixties he taught on his own, assisted by his company member Patricia Christopher

378 Ibid.

379 Through his whole life, Hoving would be an advocate of composition in any curriculum of dance. And although it has a place nowadays in Dutch dance academies, his ideal, an extended dance education only focused on choreography, still hasn't been realized in his native country. 127

at the American Dance Festival in New London. 380

For Lucas Hoving composition classes were quite

different from the technique classes he taught at Juilliard.

In technique you work with muscles and the body, in composition with the people themselves, with the deepest of what's inside them. I think that's fantastic, it strikes me enormously. Over time I feel I can get more and more out of people. . . The miracle of composition is ... it often has nothing to do with technique. You just learn the rules like: space, rhythm, dynamics, gestures ... The rules are also executed by the students. For example, they get as an exercise to do only horizontal things all day long, another day everything has to be only rectangular or diagonal. 381

Lucas Hoving thought that choreography as a trade is

hard to learn. He felt it was more important to have a certain

feeling for it, and the rest was "a matter of encouraging,

creating an atmosphere in which you can work in a relaxed

way. " 382 That was where his strength as a teacher was. Lucas,

383 who didn't consider himself a "born choreographer" , was a

380 Lucas, assisted by Patricia Christopher taught one or more levels of composition, as noted in the Bulletin of Connecticut College, School of Dance, 1962/3. Lucas taught Elementary Dance Forms, a study of the principles of dance composition with emphasis upon movement invention as well as the time, space and dynamic aspects of the craft. As shown on a flyer for the American Dance Festival, found at the Limon Foundation in New York, he also taught Intermediate Composition: the analysis and construction of movement phrases in terms of dynamics, texture, and content in locomotion and gesture. During the 1960s, Lucas also taught Advanced Composition for which advanced technique was required. Hoving worked on the development of design, dynamics, texture, Rhythm, and emotional content into dance theatre; construction of movement phrases and longer forms through an analysis of these elements.

381 Lucas Hoving, "Random Notes Of A Contemporary Romantic."

382 Hans Vogel, "Lucas Hoving: 'een balletzigeuner' . " Het Parool, December 28 1979.

383 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 128

man who had the urge to "search for the new", and he needed

384 change, which kept him "spiritually alive" • Hoving felt

choreography was vital to the continued development of dance.

There was more to teaching composition for Hoving:

Dance needs choreographers, probably more than the theatre needs playwrights, and we just cannot afford to miss one single potential. And for those who've decided they don't want to choreograph, just knowing about a choreographer's work should give them a bit more awareness of and sensitivity to the choreographer's problems and their own. 385

Lucas Roving's love for teaching composition and improvisation didn't mean he didn't value technique classes.

He taught in Connecticut, in Fairfield County, at Silvermine;

in New York, at the High School of Performing Arts and at

Juilliard. In the summer he taught at the American Dance Festival (assisted by Chase Robinson) during the sixties. But

Lucas saw specific problems in only teaching dance technique

classes. the dance becomes fascinating when it becomes the interpretation of internal tensions. Thus more is necessary than merely physical training and this makes the training of the dancer into a problem that still not has been solved. Especially not in the training as classical ballet demands, how perfect it may be in its own character. The eastern art of dance has understood this problem long ago. Over there physical and mental/spiritual training are still in harmony. With Graham I found what I was looking for in this area. Martha Graham has, also in

384 Bob Martin, "'Dancing still happens' . " No newspaper or date, probaly June 1967/68. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Clippings Lucas Hoving.

385 Lucas Hoving, "Random Notes of A Contemporary Romantic." 129

this respect, remarkable and very valuable insights. 386

The same problems Hoving saw in classical ballet,

started showing up in modern dance as well. Technique, if it

was Graham's or Limon's or Roving's, is a means to an end, to

communicate oneself on stage, and wasn't something he wanted

his students to imitate.

If a student of Martha Graham continues to dance the way she does, something is wrong. He didn't live it through, is a copycat. A twenty-one year old Dutch guy can't speak the same way as an old woman in America. Then something is wrong. He can be influenced, but he has to live it through on his own. 387

At the end of the sixties, while gradually retreating from

performing, Lucas Roving's stress on individual development towards freedom and expressiveness, seemed, in his own

perception, like a lonely cry in the desert. He sounds

disappointed with the attitude of dancers.

Presumably a student is to become a stage performer, and a conditioning of the body alone won't do the job. After all, why do actors besides learning to speak and move etc., spend hours breaking down blocks, increasing perceptions, and finding out about themselves. 388 I wonder how many dancers have been waiting for THE great director (regisseur) to find them and unlock the final

386 Ben van Eijsselstein, Haagsche Courant, March 29 1958.

387 11 Lucas Hoving danst Amerikaans met een Nederlands hart. 11 De Volkskrant, May 29 1964. No writer. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

388 He highly valued the training of actors. During the 1992 interview Hoving several times speaks about actors being more interesting people than dancers, since dancers' attention is mainly focussed on their body. This is also a way for Hoving to express his doubts about his own choice for becoming a dancer. At age eighty, there still was no peace in his heart about this issue. 130

door in them. There probably isn't one in the dance at this point. 389

When teaching, Roving's classes in technique,

composition, or improvisation, were a cry for the development

of the dancer's own voice; a cry for freedom, independance. He

created an atmosphere in which each dancer could flourish; but

not only the dancers, also the audience. During the sixties,

with his company performing in the streets, in shopping malls,

premiering work in the Bronx in stead of in downtown

390 Manhattan , and taking part in Community-Outreach-programs

avant-la-lettre, Hoving tried to break down the barriers

between audience and performers. In lecture demonstrations he

wanted "the atmosphere to be gentle and open. . . [He worked]

improvisationally with the audience: 'It's very much where ·I'm

at at the moment' . 391

Hoving' s teaching, choreography and performance work

started intertwining more and more. He explained to the

Algemeen Dagblad in The Netherlands what he was aiming for

389 Lucas Hoving, "Random Notes." In M. R. Ziegler, "Lucas Hoving na 33 jaar terug. 'Ik ontdekte mer en meer dat Europa voor mij Nederland was'" ,May 27 1971, Hoving added: "A modern dancer has to look around, read a lot, orientate himself in a wide sense."

390 Hoving' s company premiered She' s leaving home. . . March 21 1968 in the Bronx. Critic Jacqueline Maskey said it was "statistically more important than artistically". Jacqueline Maskey, "Hoving Dance Work Opens In The Bronx." March 22 1968.

391 Susan L. Butler, "Dancer Hoving wants to teach." No newspaper nor date, probably around 1970. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Clippings Lucas Hoving. Article concerned a lecture demonstration at Rice University, Houston, Texas. 131

with teaching and performing dance.

My choreographies are entirely motivated by and tuned in to the human aspect. I want to get rid of the presentation element. The 'I dance, you watch' feeling. There has to come a direct contact with the audience. The lecture­ demonstrations I did during my American tour were a tremendous success. Ten, twenty people of the audience came on stage during those shows to actively participate. It is ensemble work. 11392 After Anti-Vietnam protests turned more violent, Lucas

Hoving wanted to leave the United States and an opportunity

arose through his former director and friend Kurt Jooss.

Hoving had been teaching for ten years in Sweden during the

summers for the Swedish Guild of Dance Pedagogues. In 1970,

Kurt Jooss invited him to come over to Stockholm to build up

the dance program in a completely new building. By September,

Lucas had moved from what he saw as violence ridden America to

this peaceful Scandinavian country. In Sweden government support for the arts was generous;

the new building contained two big and two smaller dance

studios. 393 It was a time when Lucas, living on the same

floor as Jooss in the same apartment building got to know his

former director better then ever before.

Lucas loved teaching. However the long winter made Swedish students, and him, more likely to become depressed. "I

would say something to one of them. And the eyes would start

392 Willy Vermaas-Beek, "Lucas Hoving: 'Jong Holland Is Heerlijk' ." Algemeen Dagblad, September 16 1970.

393 Ziegler, May 27 1971. 132

rolling, and then I thought 'There goes another one' . 11394

By Spring 1971 the Dutch governement asked him, through

Ineke Sluiter, whom Hoving knew from the Rotterdams

Danscentrum, to head the Rotterdamse Dans Academie.Nel Roos,

the director, had suddenly passed away. 395 Lucas Hoving felt

he had finished his teaching and performing career in America

and he wanted to settle down .

. . . That happened now in Rotterdam and I am satisfied with that. The accomodation is here and soon I got a beautiful apartment from which I right away could see what type of weather it is. In New York I first had to stick my head out of the window and look up for the color of the sky. 396

Lucas Hoving liked being back in The Netherlands, not

only for professional reasons, but also for more personal

ones. The older he got, the more Dutch he felt himself.

Despite his American citizenship, and after living in the New

World for twenty-five years, he still felt he was from a

different background; as a first generation immigrant he

missed certain aspects of The Netherlands in American society. I love Holland, I love the simplicity. I always love to meet Dutch people. They are straight forward and still have a certain sense for mystics. I think it's because of the dykes and skies. It's so plain, you feel the space in The Netherlands a lot more than anywhere else. 397

394 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

395 Frans Happel, "Als danser sta ik nogal schizofreen in 't leven". Het Parool, April 24 1971.

396 Dutch newspaper, no name nor date. Probably around 1978. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

397 Geesj e Lunshof, p. 12 7. 133

In terms of dance, he still loved Dutch dancers the

most. The Dutch often have more personality, they hold the middle between the Swedes and Americans. The Swedes are too introvert, and the Americans are sometimes too superficial, often don't have a strong basis. 398

When Hoving officially started as a director of the

Rotterdamse Dans Academie, in August 1971, he emphasized his

wish to teach. "Now I can create something much more lasting.

It's a beautiful thing. " 399 He wanted to create "a color of

our own" next to American modern dance, maybe in the form of

a European triangle, with the Folkwang Ballet in Essen, and

Stockholm. And expressing his foremost love, "There doesn't

exist an education for choreographers, and it looks to me that

our Rotterdamse Academie can focus on that. 11400 He also

continued teaching technique classes and at fifty-eight he

still showed the movements himself. He taught yoga, and this

practice helped him keep in shape. 401

398 Geesj e Lunshof, p .127, no date nor name. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

399 Susan L. Butler, probably 1972. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. Evy Warshawski, Dance Teacher Now, April 1988, p .18: "The only real, ideal situation I had was in Holland, which is very much in the self-expression thing. The arts are very important, even in the ordinary school curriculum ... there I had certain students that I had for exactly a generation-from 11 years to 18 years ideally. I could see a real impact."

400 M.R. Ziegler, De Telegraaf, May 27 1971.

401 Ibid. 134

It isn't only inside class Lucas Hoving wanted to spend time with his students. During intermission time in between classes, he cycled on his bike from one building to another, or one could find Hoving smoking his cigarettes together with students in the smoking room of the academy. He wanted to give students the opportunity to reach him as well; being a teacher was for him a two-way-street. 402 This was what made him such an extraordinary teacher; he was always looking for personal contact with his students, and stimulated them to show their personality in their dancing. His capacity to be extremely receptive and together with students, at the very moment of discovering a movement, a sensation, created linkage with his students, and made him an influential teacher.

The Rotterdamse Dans Academie was mainly a classical ballet oriented institute. Journalists asked him if that wasn't a strange choice, to have a modern dancer head a classical ballet education. Lucas Hoving explained once more for his Dutch audience: As a dancer I live my life pretty schizophrenically. With one foot in the technique and with the other in the creative field. I'm not an avant-garde man, but I am progressive. That can't harm. And besides that, I think classical ballet has to be part of a general education as we offer here ... Under my leadership this school won't be an education for modern dance, but I think there are possibilities for change. I might be able to make the school more mature ... ! want to intensify more creative aspects. And of course I want to educate dancers and audiences for contemporary dance. I'd like to work in a type of workshop situation, students working for a small audience .... For me, a beginning dancer doesn't need to

402 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 135

have beautiful, long legs, high arches or a beautiful straight back. Somebody who doesn't have a specifically beautiful body, but who DOES have the Holy Spirit can get there as well. " 403

Gradually Lucas Hoving grew into his directorship, finding out more and more the problems dancers have to cope with in The Netherlands. In 1972 he said: "What worries me in The Netherlands, is that it is a small densly populated

country. If animals live close together in a cage, they don't

function well. 11404 A year later he said: "There has to come fresh air. . . And nobody seems to really care about the creative elements. Money is thrown into the arts, without any

guidance. 11405 Again Lucas tried to create a safe environment. "Personality has to be encouraged, a creative sparkle is

extremely vulnerable. " 406 He also sensed a certain spiritlessness, and from his Americanized point of view. He felt it was all too easy for students, and that The Netherlands are isolated. On the contrary, Rotterdam's isolation seemed to be compensated by an enormous vitality.

403 Frans Happel, Het Parool, April 24 1971.

404 Interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer after being director for a year (D. W., April 16 1972) . "Americans are so uninhibited, so free. It is very hard work to get Dutch students to move like this (the English are the most inhibited. They just don't open up). This is the joy of this work-seeing the kids develop freedom."

405 Hans w. Ledeboer, "Lucas Hoving over balletopleiding." Trouw/Kwartet, March 30 1973.

406 Ibid. 136

Despite his great ideas, ideals and never lasting optimism,

Lucas ran into a far from ideal situation in terms of

teachers, the relationship between the schools in Amsterdam

407 and Rotterdam , and last but not least, a frustrating

burea,ucracy and people "who wanted to be director

themselves. 11408 This created permanent stress, something Hoving could hardly deal with. It caused him a bleeding

stomach ulcer by the end of his directorate.

After seven years, in May 1978 and sixty-five years old, Lucas Hoving retired as director of the Rot terdamse Dans

Academie, but it didn't mean he quit dancing. "'I can't stop

dancing, because I have to keep on moving,' he said. 'I can spend as much time as I want on teaching, and I want to dedicate myself again to yoga and dance therapy. ' ... " Yoga helped him to get through the difficult moments, and to have patience with people. But next to that, dancing which was the

running thread through his life and which was often an obsession, helped Lucas Hoving manage the ups and downs in his

407 Dola de Jong noted in this respect: "It was a hopeless situation. He was called to The Netherlands to raise the level of dance. Well, he came in Rotterdam, with all these fat ladies. He couldn't get rid of them right away, had to do that gradually. And if they couldn't accept students in Rotterdam, the Scapino school DID take them. So if you wanted to raise the level .... " Interview with Dola de Jong, December 3 1994, New York.

400 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 137

turbulent existence. 409

During his directorate, Hoving managed to transform the

Dance Academy into an institute with an international name in

the field of modern dance. At the same time he extended the

amount of subjects. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to fulfill

one of his dearest dreams, a specialized curriculum for the

education of choreographers.

At his parting in 1978, he received for his services to

the city of Rotterdam the Wolffert van Borsselen award with

the inscription "he who gave more movement to Rotterdam", and

the Penning van de Leuve belonging to the Rotterdamse

Kunststichting. The most praise, though, he got from one of

his former students: "Someone like Lucas Hoving determines

your whole dance career. 11410

Following his retirement as director, he was appointed

First Inspector of Education in Dance. 411 But after a year

Hoving quit this job, and continued teaching. He taught a

choreography/composition course at the end of 1979 in

Amsterdam at the Theaterschool, for dancers, choreographers

and danspedagogues, with Hans van Manen as a colleague. He

also taught for three weeks in New York and Paris,and Santa

Barbara, with the plan of coming back to the Netherlands after

409 Joke van der Toorn, "Pensioen maar geen afscheid." Algemeen Dagblad, May 26 1978.

410 Hans W. Ledeboer, "Rotterdam Eert Hoving. " Trouw, June 8 1978.

411 Since 1994 Karin Sorbi had this position. 138

the summer in 1980.

Despite his age, in the second half of his sixties, and

his wish to take it easier and calmer in life, Lucas Hoving

still couldn't stop being involved with dance.

I have to learn to live with less activity. But if I, like now, am occupied with such youngsters like these, then I get a lot of energy from these people! Than I think: 'Do I have to take it easier?' Working feeds me, and in this way, it is such a privilege to get an enormous power from these kids. 412

Ten years later, in an interview with Evy Warshawski for

Dance Teacher Now, when still teaching in the Bay Area, and at

the American Dance Festival during the summer, Hoving said:

Teaching equates to a religious experience. You have a student and something happens ... You see a change in the face, something is being discovered, something valuable. It is a direct contact. I open doors for them, and maybe I point to doors that they've never discovered. Teaching is, in a sense, giving. 413

After almost forty years of teaching at the American

Dance Festival, where he developed his teaching of composition

and improvisation the most, where he initiated the forerunner

414 of the Young Choreographer's Workshop , and where he

reached tens of thousands of students from all over the world,

415 Hoving had to give up his teaching at ADF , for heal th

412 Hans Vogel, Het Parool, December 28 1979.

413 Evy Warshawski, "Spotlight on ... Lucas Hoving. A Lifetime of Modern Dance." Dance Teacher Now, April 1988, p.14-18.

414 Charles Reinhart at the Tribute Night for Lucas Hoving, July 22 1992 at The American Dance Festival in Durham NC.

415 He taught at Duke University in the space next to the cafeteria, so he could easily go for a cup of coffee. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 139 reasons. It broke his heart. Still, in 1995, whenever he can, he teaches, and it lightens up his heart every time he does, because it takes him away from his isolation, makes him feel part of life, the dance, sharing personal moments with the dancers he teaches or coaches. CHAPTER IX

EPILOGUE : THE 'COME-BACK KID'

Lucas Hoving had lived a life where coincidences became

milestones. The period after his formal retirement from the

Rotterdamse Dans Academie was no exception. At age sixty-eight

he wanted to take some time off for himself, but it seemed the

dance world couldn't do without Lucas, and, even more so,

Lucas couldn't do without the dance.

When Hoving returned to the United States, he started

teaching again at the Juilliard School in New York. This was

soon followed by workshops and residencies of several weeks

all over the country.

In 1981, when still living in New York, he decided to

take a workshop with Anna Halprin, after watching her teach a

class outdoors at the American Dance Festival. 416 With the

openness of a child, he attended Halprin's workshop at Esalen,

in Northern California. 417 There he met several students he

had taught in 1979 in Santa Barbara and in San Francisco

416 Lucas Hoving had continued teaching during the summers at the American Dance Festival during the time he had been director of the Rotterdamse Dans Academie in The Netherlands.

417 Ann Murphy, "Snapshot Biography of Lucas Hoving". San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

140 141

together with his former company member Marcia Rand. 418

Attending Anna Halprin' s workshop changed his life. " ... he

decided to stay. His students insisted he fill a void in the

modern dance area there. They found him his house and studio

and even organized his teaching engagements. " 419

Lucas was tired of New York, not only because he

couldn't see the sky without sticking his head out of the

window.

Sure enough, after twenty-five years in Greenwich Village and a stint in his native Holland, a gypsy life that's taken him many times around the globe, Roving's had it with "the six subway trips you have to make daily here ... and I've had enough snow and ice to last me the rest of my life, in Holland, Sweden, Canada ... " 420

As Lucas got older, he felt more Dutch then ever. His

move to San Francisco was in that respect well-chosen. With a

climate comparable to his native Holland, it was also a big

city near the sea. "I like being near the ocean," he said,

"That's from my grandfather. " 421 Having friends among the

Sufis in San Francisco made his decision easier as well. After

his arrival in the Bay Area, Lucas at first lived with them in

418 Hans Vogel, Het Parool, December 28 1979; flyer California College of Performing Arts, San Rafael, CA. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

419 Beverly Mann, "Datebook. An Eclectic Master Tells Personal Tales." San Francisco Chronicle, December 2 1984.

420 Elizabeth Zimmer, "A Wizard Comes East." The Village Voice, October 23 1984, p.105.

421 Judi th Green, San Jose Mercury News, September 1 1991; Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner, wrote on September 4 1991, that "It was the presence of the ocean that lured him to the Golden Gate.". 142

San Rafael. 422

Within a couple of years, and despite Lucas' ideas about

taking some time for himself he became absorbed by his work in

423 dance. He started teaching in Ed Moch' s studio , and then

changed the following year to Margaret Jenkins Dance Studio

and Third Wave Studio. 424 He finally settled down in Footwork

425 Studio, and taught additional classes at Mills College •

During the 1980s teaching and choreographing became for

Lucas Hoving more than ever intertwined. Teaching

improvisation and composition classes often inspired him to

choreograph in the 1960s. Now, in the 1980s, Hoving perfected

their mutual relationship. 426 In 1982 he premiered Collage,

and in 1983 he set up the DanceLab for young aspiring

422 In 1987 Lucas Hoving would perform in a benefit concert for the Sarni Mahal Sufi Center in San Rafael. Press release, October 19 1987. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

423 Janice Ross, "Oceans In The Sky". Unpublished, 1991. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

424 Ibid.

425 "Biography". San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings. Lucas Hoving loved teaching a lot, but he also continued out of financial necessity; his pension from his directorship in Rotterdam was not enough.

426 In his improvisation and composition classes, and even technique classes, Lucas accompanied the class himself on the piano. In class and in his 'choreography' more and more the idea of students having to find their own ways of using their bodies instead of imitating what he was doing, was further developed. 143

427 choreographers. • Because his choreographies during this

period were a result of collaborative work in a workshop

setting, his performances and his composition classes were two

sides of the same coin. Marilyn Tucker wrote a year later,

after the DanceLab performance of March 16-17 1984 at the New

Performance Gallery:

Lucas Roving's program [Landscape with Clouds, Opus '84, Vacillating Blues (with costumes of Lavina Nielsen), Six Short Dances, Icarus] should have been required viewing material to any apprentice choreographer desiring to make dances ... What was particularly satisfying ... was his commanding use of space ... Hoving had allowed each dancer to be in exactly the right place in the right time. Entrances, exits, on-stage movement, line and ensemble relationships - everything was absolutely right, smooth finished, and tightly worked out. 428

For five years, from 1983-1988, Hoving worked with a

group of dancers. In 1985 he changed the name of this group

into Lucas Hoving Performance Group. They basically performed

in the Bay Area. Members of his company were not always

professional dancers. Hoving was interested in persons, and

still trying to, even further, break down the barriers between

performers and audience, as he had started doing during the

1960s. Having dancers who were less inhibited and less

occupied by technique, and whose dancing was more initiated by

their heart, made it easier for Hoving to show their humanity

on stage. His group created movement through improvisation,

and he added more improvisation in the performances themselves

427 Ann Murphy, "Snapshot Biography". San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

428 Marilyn Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, March 19 1984. 144

over the years. The concept of freedom became very important

to Hoving during this period; in his Songs For A Distant Land

he dealt with political freedom. This work premiered December

7 1984, in the Footwork Studio. It was "a direct plea for

reason and compassion in South America" 429 was dedicated to

his teacher Florrie Rodrigo, "whom he deeply admired ... 'It

has political implications - about freedom. I wanted to create

another piece on liberation. Though Songs deals with the

psychiatric political prisons of the world, it moves towards

a celebration in movement.' " 430 Allan Ulrich added: " ... he

seems to have distilled the essence of what distinguishes the

genuine from the metriculous ... his clear vision and burning

commitment are unimpaired" . 431 As a choreographer, Hoving was

good "at choreographing movement that sweeps across the stage,

432 pitting soloists against surging ensembles" , and "moving

large numbers of people around in limited space". ifi

1970 Lucas Hoving had concluded his perfoming career as a

professional dancer. Fourteen years later, in 1984, Lucas

Hoving celebrated his come-back to the stage. With Remy

Charlip Lucas created Growing Up in Public, a title distilled

429 Janice Ross, "Hoving brings joyous approach to dancing." The Trubune. Oakland. December 10 1984. Songs is a re-working of his 1974 Songs for Chile.

430 Beverly Mann, San Francisco Chronicle, December 2 1984.

431 Allan Ulrich, "At 72, Hoving gives the dance youth." San Francisco Examiner, December 8 1984.

432 Janice Ross, The Tribune, December 10 1984. 145

from Roving's Random Notes of a Contemporary Romantic; the

title came from his view on critics: "The trouble is we' re

doing part of out growing up in public, and we know it just as

well as they do ... " 433 It comprised his lifetime story as a

series of almost accidental events in movement and voice; it

used his skills in both acting and dance.

Growing Up in Public premiered at the Second Next Wave

Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music, on October 17 1984, and

became an instant success. "One of the wittiest and best-loved

434 patriarchs of American modern Dance" , as Jennifer Dunning

described him, managed to come back to the stage with

everything he was known for; humanity, humor, expresiveness,

compassion, and presence. Strongly in touch with his roots,

utilizing the typically Dutch motto "Just act normal, then

you' re acting crazy enough" 435 Lucas Hoving performed his

life-story.

Dressed in work clothes that looked like a farmer's second best outfit .... The idea for the solo ... came after Mr. Hoving stepped briefly onto the stage in San Francisco ... Touring the country, Mr. Charlip invited dancers at each performance to wet their feet in paint, and imprint a fundraising poster for a nuclear disarmament project. "I hadn' t been on stage in 14 years, " Mr. Hoving said. " ' This is fantastic,' I thought. The next day Mr Charlip telephoned. "I have an idea for a piece about the life of a dancer," he said. "Would you be the 70-year old?" Mr. Hoving, now 73, agreed, so long the dance wouldn't be

433 Lucas Hoving, "Random Notes of A Contemporary Romantic."

434 Jennifer Dunning, "Paying Tribute to a Patriarch of Modern Dance." The New York Times, February 28 1986.

435 The motto is typically Dutch since it has a definitely egalitarian content. 146

performed in New York. "My first inclination is to say yes to everything," he said a little ruefully. 436

For two weeks Charlip and Hoving talked about Lucas'

life and work. "Remy has a beautiful sense of humor and

timing. He's a good editor. He would say 'Tell that story.'"

Lucas recalled. 437 The solo contains an enormous treasure of

stories, but still it has a "stunning sparseness" 438 The fact

the solo does not "build chronologically but skips back and

forth in time, following a strong emotional logic" 439

definitely evokes the same feeling.

Deborah Jowitt's review in The Village Voice gives us a

clear view of this work of "the multi-faceted choreographer and idea man" 44° Charlip and Hoving, the "alchemist, a master

441 of the brilliant compromise" :

Memory and dreams are vital ingredients in Charlip' s work, and formed the basis for a marvelous performance by Lucas Hoving called Growing Up in Public which concerned Roving's memories of his long and celebrated career. He walks out on stage, hands stuffed into the pockets of his loose jacket-very tall, slim, fair, a benign but keen-eyed eagle. Seventy-two years old ... oh Lucas, who'd thought it. But he leaves us no time for sentiment; he's down on his

436 Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times, February 28 1986.

437 Joann McNamara, "Living legend recalls genesis of modern dance." Ann Arbor (Michigan) News, October 30 1988.

438 Nancy Goldner, "At the Painted Bride. Hoving dances his life story." Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Inquirer, October 29 1988.

439 Ibid.

440 Anna Kisselgoff, October 18 1984.

441 Elizabeth Zimmer, October 23 1984. 147

knees, hands twiddling in the air-three years old and discovering mama's piano. He talks, dances us through a travelogue of his life ... The stage is full of companiable ghosts and evocations of the living: temporary anger and regret surrender to therapeutic wryness and resilience and a gift for being pleased with life. He's a fine mover still, a gifted actor. He emerges from dancing, says he thought he'd retired, but, well, Remy asked him to do this, "and here I am," he says in unduplicably sly wonder, "part of the 'Next Wave'". Pause. Big smile. "And I like it. " 442

After years of successful performances of Growing Up in

443 Public , Lucas Hoving and his manager Vernon Fuquay launched in September 1987 a program which was called An

Evening with Lucas Hoving, in which he performed Growing Up,

showed and discussed filmed highlights of his career and

shared his life and works more in detail. 444

Around the middle of the 1980s people in the dance world

started publicly acknowledging the enormous value and

importance of this great teacher and performer Lucas Hoving, who had been around for so many years. In 1985 he was the five

year recipient of the NEA Choreographer's Fellowhip (1985- 1989), won the Heritage Award from the California Dance

Educators Association and received in 1986 the crystal "Izzie"

445 for his life's work in the Sustained Achievement Category •

442 Deborah Jowitt, "Beasts in the Sandbox." The Village Voice, November 6 1984.

443 It is remarkable that Lucas Hoving never mentions Lavina Nielsen in Growing Up in Public.

444 Press release September 1987. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

445 Janice Ross, Dance Magazine, August 1987, p.8-9. 148

During this same period, others started to organize Tributes

to Lucas Hoving. The first one in a long series was to be done by the Limon Company, February 28 1986, in the Joyce Theater

in New York. 446

Over the years, Lucas Hoving had maintained his

relationship with the Limon Company. He served as artistic advisor for several Limon company seasons and their first International Choreographer's Residency at Skidmore College, "but [he] admits his input doesn't account for a lot" Hoving

447 mentions in 1982 • That year he also re-staged his Songs

448 for Chile for the Limon Company , and mounted Icarus in

1985 on them. 449 Carla Maxwell, the current artistic director, brought him in as much as possible to coach the contemporary generation of dancers in the roles he, Jose, Betty and Pauline created. In 1988, Lucas Hoving choreographed his last work for the Limon Company, A Day in Your Life,

described by Carla Maxwell as the most beautiful choreography

446 The last tribute was held in May 1995, by the Doris Humphrey Repertory Dance Company in San Francisco.

447 Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner, May 20 1982.

448 Julie Oser McLeod, "National Reviews. Santa Barbara." Dance Magazine, October 1986, mentions also he "overchoreographed" Songs for the Limon Company, and that she liked the Repertory West version of 1980 better.

449 Ernestine Stodelle, "Bennington Revitalized." Dance Magazine, October 1985. 149

he ever created. 450

During the early 1980s Lavina Nielsen and Lucas Hoving

re-united again. Since the late 1960s both partners had gone their own ways, but never lost contact with each other; they

kept on running into each other, and spent the holidays together. Nielsen had become ill, and returned now from Florida, where she had been living. After they had been together again for a short while, they married again upon

451 Nielsen's request , this time in a Zen-ceremony in San

Francisco. 452 For Lucas, a second marriage with Lavina didn't change much. They kept on squabbling, but had a lot of fun together

as well: they couldn't be together, and couldn't live without each other. What made the situation between them harder to manage was that Lavina's illness became worse. Lucas took care of her as well as he could. He brought her a little dog, Daisy, for company, and did the best he could to make her life as comfortable as possible. She picked up her old trade, and

designed costumes for his choreographies like Vacillating

Blues.

450 Interview Carla Maxwell, September 1994.

451 Hoving explained that their first divorce, except for 11 11 obvious reasons ( there had been problems ) , also had been the result of friends of Lavina's who had told her a divorce at that time was an advantage for tax reasons. Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

452 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 150

On June 30 1988 Lavina Nielsen died "of complications resulting from emphysema" . 453 This was a disease she caught, according to Lucas, from smoking, and also from inhaling poisonous fumes from refinishing a studio floor, over and over again, beyond perfection. 454

For Lucas Hoving, the death of his wife marked the end of an era. Several people, like his former manager Ann Murphy and student Cheryl Yonker, tried to take care of him as well as possible, but his wife's death was very difficult for him.

It didn't seem like that on the surface, but Hoving had lost his life companion. Despite the many years of separation, they had always been in contact with each other. Lavina always had been there, present at close range or in the background.

Lavina's death meant the end of a continuous, though at times fragile, relationship with one person over forty years.

A month after his wife passed away, Hoving' s life apparently went back to normal again; he taught technique, improvisation and composition classes in the Laban center in

London. The following Spring, in 1989, he taught for three months in Guangzhou, mainland China, as an ambassador of the

American Dance Festival. But once back home, and not around people as much as he used to be, he retreated from the world.

Roving's curiosity, intelligence, fearlessness and wit seemed to be buried in grief. Several strokes in 1992 prohibited him

453 Obituaries, Dance Magazine, December 1988, p.96.

454 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992. 151 from travelling to the American Dance Festival for the fortieth year in a row. He missed the Tribute in his honour; the summer heat of Durham didn't seem to be the best place to be. With age and after the strokes, Hoving' s short term memory deteriorated. Although his long term memory continued to function as always, his changed memory capacity left him with the fear he would get Alzheimer's disease, like his sister. For the past years Lucas Hoving had lived in San Francisco. His house, always open for friends who were temporary without a place to stay, was taken from him in the

Spring of 1995. He moved back to the Sufi group in San Rafael where he had started off fourteen years before. The next summer, the Sufi house was sold, and Hoving had to move once again. Lucas Hoving lives now in a temporary housing facility in San Rafael, California. CHAPTER X

LUCAS HOVING:

A LIFE OF DANCE

When Lucas Hoving, as a child, ran out of his house to dance to the music of the organ grinder in the street, he already showed the basis of his professional dance career to come; dance is about expressing one's inner world, in all it's directness and simplicity. Hoving learned to dance before

World War II in Groningen, The Netherlands, where modern dance was still in it's infancy and was mainly influenced by the great German teachers Wigman, Jooss and Von Laban. His early career in The Netherlands involved vaudeville productions, musicals and revues; for a while Hoving even thought

"commercials" would be his career. 455 But Florrie Rodrigo's class for men turned his life around. Through her, and Yvonne

Georgi, Hoving developed himself in modern dance. With the socially and politically conscious Rodrigo he experienced what dancing from a driven heart meant. With Georgi he developed his first skills as an actor-dancer, without any political connotations. His professional career took a new turn when he entered the Jooss School in England. Jooss developed Roving's talents

455 Interview with Lucas Hoving, June 1992.

152 to another, higher, level, combining the theatrical and movement approach, with a strong base in leftist political consciousness. With Jooss, Hoving gained important knowledge about time, energy, space and their mutual relationship in movement; it would mean the basis of his composition classes in years to follow. It was Rodrigo's and Jooss' approach to dance as an expression of a human being which would shape his perception of movement forever.

During World War II Lucas Hoving took the initiative to enlist for the Dutch Army in Exile. While waiting to be shipped across the Atlantic, and before having to say goodbye to the life of a dancer for a while, Lucas Hoving performed in

Martha Graham's Letter to the World. When finally bureaucracy and time had been overcome, and after his marriage with former

Jooss dancer Lavina Nielsen, he joined the First Canadian

Army, risking his life for battle. His heart told him to go; to support allied troups as a wireless interpreter. An amulet given by Martha Graham guarded him throughout the War.

While going back to taking modern classes with Martha

Graham, and trying to get back in ballet classs again, Lucas

Hoving spent several years on Broadway, performing in choreography by Agnes DeMille and Valerie Bettis. He also performed with Bettis in her modern dance repertory. Agnes

DeMille encouraged him to teach. With the idea that "It at least pays the bills", Lucas Hoving started his teaching career.

153 154

Hoving' s life changed profoundly with his entrance into the Jose Limon Dance Company. It meant respect as a mature artist, and within the context of a newly built company, he was able to express himself in all his aspects through the roles he created within the framework Jose Limon set. Their oppositional and complimentary characters, and their profound skills as mature artists created the thundering electricity which occurred when both men appeared on stage.

Unintentionally, and without knowing, Lucas Hoving made through his dancing a major contribution to the emancipation of the male dancer; he showed male dance didn't need to be

"sissy", and could be full of pride and strength.

For f ourteeen years Lucas Hoving created his memorable roles in The Moor's Pavane, The Traitor and Emperor Jones, designing real human beings on stage, showing his strength as a male dancer, actor and performer. Together with Jose Limon,

Betty Jones and Pauline Koner, he made Limon's work immortal.

Although Lucas Hoving didn't look at himself as a born choreographer, he created many dances in which he managed to express a human being's inner struggles in a formidable way.

Tools to express this were the use of humor, and the creation of movement through the dancers themselves, coming out of their bodies, souls and imagination. It was this path of creating a voice of their own, with which he was occupied, especially starting in the 1960s, which also became his credo in teaching. Lucas Hoving created composition classes and 155 developed improvisation classes; his choreographic and teaching efforts interchangeably influence each other. With his search for humanity and sincerity in dance, Hoving also developed a stronger compassion for his fellow human beings in the field of politics; he actively supported the anti-Vietnam War movement through the works he created. This movement became violent, and Hoving looked for alternative countries to live and work in. In 1970, through Kurt Jooss, he had the opportunity to teach in Stockholm. After a dark winter in this Scandinavian country, Hoving exchanged Sweden for his native Holland, to become director of the Rotterdamse Dans Academie. For seven years he taught at and managed the Academie, in an effort to raise the level of modern dance in The Netherlands. In 1978, sixty-five years old, he retired, leaving a blooming Academie, internationally respected, with a wider range of dance subjects to study. He had transformed it from a classical ballet based academy into a school for contemporary dancers and teachers of modern dance. The Netherlands became too small for the American Hoving. The Dutchman who was naturalized in 1946, returned to the United States in 1980, to finally settle again in San

Francisco. His 'crusade' to move human beings, and to break down the barriers between audiences and performers, hadn't faded. Through teaching his improvisation classes, and his choreography for non-dancers and dancers without a 156 professional background, Hoving created more work which stressed the humanity of his dancers on stage. The performance of Growing Up In Public, created for him by and together with

Remy Charlip, was an important later work, with its base rooted in his personal approach to dance.

By the mid 1980s, Lucas Hoving started to receive the appreciation of the contemporary dance world. He was honored with several distinctions, and at many occasion people and dance companies contributed their work to Tribute Nights for

Lucas Hoving. It was his life time achievement as a performer, choreographer and teacher which people started to respect, taking him out of the shadow of so many others where he used to be. APPENDIX A

ARCHIVES CONSULTED

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Dance Collection, Broadway, New York, NY * Clippings Lucas Hoving, Lavina Nielsen, Jose Limon, Pauline Koner, Betty Jones,

The Limon Foundation, 611 Broadway, 9th floor. New York, NY * Material concerning Lucas Roving's Tribute Night 1986, and copy of Betty Jones' Scrapbook.

The San Francisco Performing Arts Library, San Francisco, CA * Clippings on Lucas Hoving, Lavina Nielsen and Jose Limon.

Netherlands Institute of the Dance, Keizersgracht Amsterdam, The Netherlands. * Clippings of Lucas Hoving, Evert Smit, Karel Poons, Yvonne Georgi, Therese Stokvis, Florrie Rodrigo, Iet Last, Jef Last, Alexander Ludowski, Cees de Dood. * Library. * Separate archives of Florrie Rodrigo and Greetje Donker; Circus Kavaljos; Nederlandse Revue/Nationale Revue:Snip en Snap. Archivists: Tuja van den Berg; Paul Post, Monique Kienhuis.

Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. * Clippings on Lucas Hoving. Library of The American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C. 20016. * Books, microfilms and magazines.

157 APPENDIX B

CHOREOCHRONICLE

1941 NEWSREEL. September 22 1941 Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York. Dance: the Jooss Ballet.

1949 DAWN IN NEW YORK. November 21 1949. 92nd Street "Y", New York Dance: Lucas Hoving

1949 THREE CHARACTER STUDIES. - Live Wire - A Very Modest Man - Happy Disposition November 21 1949. 92nd Street "Y", New York. Music: Ada Reif Piano: Ada Reif Dance: Lucas Hoving

1950 THE BATTLE. October 16 1950. Henry Street Playhouse, New York. Music: Ada Reif. Piano: Ada Reif. Poem: Gertrude Stein "Portrait of Picasso" Spoken by: Ilona Ricardo. Dance: Lucas Hoving.

1951 LA TERTULIA. (Terry, Dance World, April 8 1951) March 31 1951. Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. Dance: Lucas Hoving, Lupe Serrano

1953 ELECTRA. 1953. Dance: Lucas Hoving, Lavina Nielsen.

158 159

1953 THE PERILOUS FLIGHT. August 1953. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Bartok. Dance: Lucas Hoving/Lavina Nielsen

1953 SATYROS {SPRING} . August 22 1953. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Poulenc. Dance: Lucas Hoving/Lavina Nielsen

1955 TIME OF INNOCENCE

1955 BALLAD. August 18-21 1955. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London.

1955 SATYROS {SUMMER, AUTUMN) . August 20 1955. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Poulenc. Dance and choreography: Lucas Hoving/Lavina Nielsen.

1955 LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES. December 18 1955. 92nd Street "Y", New York. Music: Prokoviev. Dance: Ralph Harmer, Janet Gray, Joan Parmer, Mary Ann Young.

?? THE HOUSE OF BERNARDO ALBA. Music: Albeniz Iberian Suite.

?? A HUNTING WE WILL GO. Music: group of waltzes from Johann Strauss' opera "Fledermaus".

1958 OMMEGANG. 1958. Carre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Music: Wolfram Fuerstenau Dance : Ballet der Lage Landen. 160

1958 SUITE OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS. May 1958. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Dance: Scapino Ballet.

?? VIEW FROM A MOUNTAIN. - Rain - Tropical Sea Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Dance: Barbara Sloane, Sherry Cundick, Carolyn Broyson, Ginger Bennett, Gaylyn Skola, Susan Wilkinson, Deborah Shields, Jane Luke, Janine Lambert, Janice Jenkins, Tad Poulton, Terri Poulton, Deborah Dunn, Granite and Candy Lish, Lynn Bell, Diane Cunningham, Jerelyn Jenkins, Jayne Wilkinson, Patti Belserievre.

1960 WALL OF SILENCE. August 18 1960. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Florent Schmitt. Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Dance: Patricia Christopher, Betty de Jong, Nancy Lewis, Koert Stuijf, Carl Wolz, Lucas Hoving.

1961 ENCOUNTERS 1961.

1962 DIVERTIMENTO 1962.

1962 STRANGE TO WISH WISHES NO LONGER. Spring 1962. Music: Webern. Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Dance: Pat Christopher, Lucas Hoving.

1962 PARADES AND OTHER FANCIES. December 16 1962. Fashion Institute Auditorium, New York. Music: Armin Schibler. Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Lighting: Billie Ann Burrill. Dance: Ellen Titler, Martha Clarke, Patricia Beatty, Alice Condodina, Kelly Hogan, Donato Capozzoli, William Dugan, Cliff Keuter. 161 1962 HAS THE LAST TRAIN LEFT? December 16 1962. Fashion Institute Auditorium, New York. Music: Henk Badings . Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Lighting: Billie Anne Burrill. Dance: Ellen Titler, Martha Clarke, Patricia Beatty, Alice Condodina, Kelly Hogan, Donato Capozzoli, William Dugan, Cliff Keuter. 1962 SUITE FOR A SUMMER DAY. December 27 1962. 92nd Street "Y", New York. Music: Peter Schickele. Dance: Pat Christopher, Chase Robinson, Lucas Hoving, Cliff Keuter. 1963 AUBADE. August 18 1963. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Birger/Karl Bloomdahl. Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Dancers: Lucas Hoving, Chase Robinson, Patricia Christopher.

1964 INCIDENTAL PASSAGE. April 5 1964. 92nd Street "Y", New York. Music: Czerny, Etudes. Piano: Eva Wainless. Dance: Lucas Hoving, Patricia Christopher, Chase Robinson. 1964 ICARUS. April 5 1964 92nd Street "Y", New York. Costumes: John Rawlings. (Program LF) Music: Chin-Ichi Matushita Dancers: Daedalus Lucas Hoving Icarus Chase Robinson The Sun Patricia Christopher

?? VARIATIONS ON A DRAMATIC THEME Dance: Lucas Hoving, Nancy Lewis.

1965 ST. PATRICK 1965. Television. 162 1965 THE TENANTS. August 7 1965. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: George Riedel. Dancers: Lucas Hoving, Chase Robinson, Patricia Christopher.

1965 SATIANA. August 7 1965. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music and text: Erik Satie. Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Dancers: Lucas Hoving, Chase Robinson, Patricia Christopher.

1966 VARIATIONS ON THE THEME OF ELECTRA. May 21 1966. 92nd Street "Y", New York. Music: Edgar Varese. Electra costume for Miss Lewis: Betty Williams. Dance: Nancy Lewis, Chase Robinson, Lucas Hoving.

1967 ROUGH-IN. August 6 1967. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Hank Johnson. Costumes: Lavina Nielsen. Dancers: Chase Robinson, Nancy Lewis, Christopher Lyall, Marcia Lerner, Karen Brydenthal, Linda Tolbert.

1968 SHE'S LEAVING HOME ...... March 21 1968. Bronx Community College Auditorium, New York. Music; collage. Dance: Lucas Hoving, Joseph Scoglio, Marcia Lerner, Christopher Lyall, Chase Robinson, and two more dancers.

1969 WALL February 1969. N.Y.U., 35 W.4 Street. Dance: 11 dancers.

1969 UPPERCASE. 1969. Dance: Gay DeLanghe, Charles Phipps. 163 1969 OPUS '69. April 10 1969. Nashville. Music: Pierre Henry. Dance: Sandra Brown, Randal Faxon, Graciela Figueroa, Gay DeLanghe, Eugene Harris, Christopher Lyall, Seamus Murphy, Charles Phipps, Rebecca West.

1969 HOME. Friday July 11 1969, 8.30 p.m. Channel 13. Script: Megan Terry. Choreography: Lucas Hoving. Costumes: Frank Thompson. Set: Ed Wittstein Tv effects: Glenn Jordan Director: Jack Venza. Actors: Edward Winter, Louise Latham, Jenn Ben­ Yakov, Irene Daily, Dennis Patrick, Dixie Marquis, Roger Davis, Joel Fabiani, Jacque Lynn Colton.

1970 AUBADE II. May 1970. American Dance at City Center, New York. Music: Pierre Henry. Dance: Sandra Brown, Randal Faxon, Graciela Figueroa, Gay Delanghe, Eugene Harris, Christopher Lyall, Seamus Murphy, Charles Phipps, Rebecca West.

1970 KALEIDOSCOPE. May/June 1970. Israel. Dancers: Bat-Dor; Yehuda Maor. 1970 REFLECTIONS. August 7 1970. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Watson. Dancers: Charles Phipps, Peter Woodin, Anne Marie Ridgway, Randall Faxon, Laurie Cameron, Gay DeLanghe, Milne Bail, Margaret Beals.

1971 COLLEGA April 26 1971. Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Dance: Rotterdams Danscentrum 164

1971 ZIPCODE. July 31 1971. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Additional choreography: Pina Bausch. Music: tape collage. Dancers: Pina Bausch, Margaret Beals, Ron Cunningham, Gay DeLanghe, Randall Faxon, Louise Frank, Lucas Hoving, Lionel Kilner, Charles Phipps, Marcia Rand, Peter Woodin, Michael Bruce, James Cutting, Jane Lowe, Candy Prior, Anne Marie Ridgway. 1971 ASSEMBLAGE. July 31 1971. Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. Music: Piano: Paul Knopf. Percussion: Andre Lubart. Voice: Sheila Jordan. Dancers: Lucas Hoving Dance Company, and 30 students. 1974 SONGS FOR CHILE. 1974. Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

1982 COLLAGE. May 21 1982. Centerspace Studio, San Francisco. Dance: five performers. 1983 SION. 1983.

1983 LANDSCAPE WITH CLOUDS. 1983. Music: Gregory Ballard. Dance: Lucas Hoving Performance Group.

1984 VACILLATING BLUES. March 16 1984. Centerspace Studio/Theater, San Francisco. Music: Gregory Ballard. Costumes: Lavina Hovinga-Nielsen. Dance: Betsy Ceva, Tina Misaka, Gary Palmer.

1984 SIX SHORT DANCES. 1984. Music: of the Renaissance era. Dance: Lucas Hoving Performance Group. 165

1984 OPUS '84. March 16 1984. New Performance Gallery, San Francisco. Music: YELLO. Dance: Ferolyn Angell, Jennifer Butcher, Ayat Cate, Betsy Ceva, Laura Fly, Mary Beth Gallant, Debi Griffin, Kris Halverson, Michael Jones, Bob Kip, Mira Lisa Katz, Keith, Elizabeth Kert, Kathy Knight, Joy Manzi-Fe, Jenni McPhee, Peggy Mehagian, Patricia Simpson, Ayelat Sela, Cheryl Yonker.

1984 PITS AND THUMBS. April 26 1984. Footwork Studio, San Francisco. Choreography: collective. Music: Xenakis. Dance: seven dancers of the Lucas Hoving Performance Group.

1984 SONGS FOR A DISTANT LAND. December 7 1984. Footwork Studio, San Francisco. Tape collage: Gregory Ballard. Dance: 18 dancers.

1985 CELEBRATION April 27 1985. New Performance Gallery, San Francisco. Music: Jerry Gerber. Dance: 19 dancers, under which Jess Curtis, Cheryl Yonker. 1986 REQUIEM SUITE. Part One. The Land Was Dying. 1986. Dance: Michael Kelly Bruce.

1986 PIAF. April 5 1986. Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara, CA. Music: Edith Piaf, performed by Betty Walberg. Dance: Alice Condodina.

1987 EPISODE. 1987. Score: John Toenjes Dance: Lucas Hoving, Carolyn Klismith, Peggy Mehagian, Betsy Ceva, Janice Dulak, Erica Eigenberg, Cheryl Yonker. 166

1988 SEARCH 1988. Music: Pierre Henry Dance: 10 performers.

1988 A DAY IN YOUR LIFE. 1988. Dance: The Limon Company

1990 RUSH HOUR. 1990 Stadsschouwburg Groningen. Dance: Dance Company Reflex APPENDIX C

CHRONOLOGY FOR LUCAS HOVING

1912 Born in Groningen, the Netherlands.

1915 Started playing the piano.

1918 Featured as one of the Dwarfs in Snow White production in primary school.

Started pianolessons.

1921 Choreographed school shows.

1924 Accompanist of Neel Kuiper' s dance classes at "Eclecta".

1924-1925 Danced in vaudeville productions for pay at town events with Henny Vles.

1926 Choreographed show at H.B.S ..

Harald Kreutzberg in Groningen.

Left high school, started working in clothing store.

Tap dance classes with Frida von Brueggen.

1930 Left for Amsterdam.

Accompanied classes Helen Morissey and Florrie Rodrigo.

1930s Performed in Carioca, with Lizzy Velasco.

167 168

1930s Soloist in Dutch Opera Ballet.

1931 Henny Vles and Lucas Hoving in Amsterdam.

1931/1932 First performances with Rene Sleeswijk revue, Amsterdam.

Role in Dutch/Flemish movie with Mien Duinman van Twist.

1932-1933 Ballet classes with Mea Eggink.

1932-1934 Vaudeville duet program with Dolly Morissey.

1933-1936 Member Florrie Rodrigo's dance company.

1934 Premiere Rodrigo's De Schepelingen.

November: "Marie Louise" of the Rene Sleeswijk Revue Tour.

Taught children's classes in dance and acting.

1935 Revue with Dolly Morissey in Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. With Florrie Rodrigo to Brussel. Act in "Le Gaietee".

1935-1936 Duets with Gien Favejee.

1936 Premiere Rodrigo' s Vreemd Land. Performs Rodrigo' s Rhapsody in Blue.

1936-1937 Meijer-Hamel Revue, Amsterdam.

Musicals with Dolly Morissey.

Sleeswijk Revue with Snip & Snap.

1936-1938 Ben Ludowski's Variete Group. 169

1936-1938 Variete Faveur.

1938 Yvonne Georgi's premieres of Hungarian Dances, as "the Miller" in Le Tricorne, as "Zeus" in Die Geschoepfe des Prometheus, and in Schaduwen. Performs in Olympic Stadium Amsterdam in choreography of Georgi.

Left in September for Dartington Hall, England, to study on scholarship with Kurt Jooss.

1939 Entered Jooss Ballet, and tours Great Britain and Ireland. Jooss' The Green Table.

1940 May. Nazis invaded The Netherlands, and Hoving started procedure to join Dutch Armed Forces in Exile.

1940-1941 Toured the United States of America, South America and United States of America again with the Jooss Ballet. The Green Table.

1941 Choreographed News Reel for the Jooss Ballet. Lead in DeMille's Drums Sound in Hackensack.

1942 Actor alongside Louise Rainier. Summer. Choreographed and danced for Holland Classical Circus/Circus Van Leer.

Featured in Graham's Letter To The World.

Joined Dutch Armed Forces in Canada, while living in New York. Performed in the Roxy Theater. Catherine Littlefield's Kiss for Cinderella.

Toured with road company of Hellzapoppin.

1943 Married American dancer Lavina Nielsen in Guelph, Canada. 170

1943 Left for England to finish education as wireless operator with Dutch Armed Forces in Exile. Taught dance to primary school teachers.

1944 Followed invasion troups after D-Day. Joins liberation southern part of The Netherlands.

1945 Joined family in Groningen again after defeat Nazi Germany. Interpreter between Nazi prisoners of war and Canadian Armed Forces.

1946 Juvenile lead with Kay Kendall in Rank-movie London Town. Honorable discharged from army service. Broadway show Tom Sawyer. American citizen.

Started teaching at The American Theatre Wing.

1946-1947 Danced with Lavina in Atty van den Berg's In Memory of A Beloved Brother. Lead in DeMille's Broadway show Bloomergirl. Featured in DeMille's Oklahoma.

1947 Danced in Valerie Bettis' Yerma and As I Lay Dying ... , as well as in her Broadway musical Beggar's Holiday, together with Lavina.

1948 Performed in DeMille's Rape of Lucretia on Broadway.

1948-1958 Assistant of Louis Horst at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College, New London.

Duet Program with Lavina Nielsen. Association of American Colleges.

1948-1963 Joined Jose Limon's company. Features in La Malinche as "El Conquisatador". 171

1949 Solo debut with Three Characters and Dawn in New York.

Featured as "Iago" in Limon's The Moor's Pavane.

Danced with Lavina Nielsen in Pauline Koner' s choreography Alice in Wonderland on television.

1949-1952 Instructor High School of Performing Arts, New York City.

1950 March. Featured in premiere of Pauline Koner's The Visit.

May. Performed with Ruth Pages Les Ballets Americains in Paris.

Featured in Limon's premiere of Concert.

September. Residency with Limon in Mexico.

November. Premiere The Battle.

Performed with Lavina in nightclubs and at the Roxy Movie house.

1951 Featured as Tezcatlipoca in Mexican premieres of Limon' s The Four Suns, and as Cortez and Maximiliaen in Dialogues. Premiere Roving's La Tertulia. Assistant Mary Wigman at the American Dance Festival. Featured in premieres at the American Dance Festival in Humphrey's Quartet (Night Spell) and Koner's Amourous Adventures (with Charles Weidman).

Television series The Crystal Ball, choreographed by Helen Tamiris and Pauline Koner. Other television appearances comprise Lamp Unto My Feet and Omnibus.

1952 Featured as The Angel in premiere of Limon's The Visitation, and in Humphrey's Fantasy and Fugue, at the American Dance Festival. 172

1953 Premiere Satyros and Perilous Flight with Lavina Nielsen at ADF. Premiere of Electra, also with Lavina.

Featured as The Son in Humphrey's premiere of Ruins and Visions at ADF. Featured in premiere of Limon's Don Juan Fantasia.

1954 Featured as The Leader in Limon's premiere of The Traitor at ADF. South America Tour with the Limon Company under the ANTA-program of president Eisenhower.

1955 Director of the Silvermine School of the Dance. Premiere of Love for Three Oranges for the Merry­ Go-Rounders, New York City. Premiere of Satyros (Summer. Autumn) with Lavina Nielsen at ADF. Featured in premiere of Limon' s Symphony for Strings and Humphrey's Airs and Graces.

1956 Featured as The White Man in the premiere of Limon' s The Emperor Jones at Empire State Music Festival, in the premiere of Limon' s There Is A Time... and Humphrey's Theatre Piece No.2 at ADF.

1957 Featured, together with Lavina, in premiere of Limon's Blue Roses and Humphrey's Dance Ouverture at ADF. Tour through Europe with the Jose Limon Company, through England, France, West-Germany, Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Yugoslavia and Portugal.

1958 Vacation with Lavina to Spain and Morocco. Taught and choreographed in The Netherlands, January-June. Premieres Ommegang for the Ballet der Lage Landen, and A Suite of Negro Spirituals for the Scapino Ballet. Works shown on Dutch television, including his on-man-show. 173

1958 Taught in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and at the Folkwang Schule in Essen, Germany.

Lecture demonstration for USIS in The Hague.

Featured in premieres of Limon's Dances.

1958-1968 Faculty member Juilliard School, New York City.

1959 Danced Currier's Dangerous World.

Featured in premiere of Limon's The Apostate at ADF.

1959-1960 Actor in first cast of The Sound of Music.

1960 Directed and choreographed for The Riddle of Sheba, at Yonkers. Staged Cohn's opera The Fall of the City and Mozart's The Magic Flute for the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Premiere Wall of Silence at ADF.

Toured Latin America and the big cities in the USA with the Limon company.

1960-1961 Taught IMPACT, pilot residency program in public schools in five underprivileges areas in the United States.

1961 Taught at Folkwang Hochschule Essen.

1961-1965 Co-director Contemporary Dance Productions Inc.

1961-1971 Taught for Swedish Federation of Dance Pedagogues during the summer (May-June) . Director Lucas Hoving Dance Company.

1962 Premieres Strange To Wish Wishes No Longer and Suite For A Summer Day. 174

1962-1963 Co-director Merry-Go-Rounders.

1963 Premiere Aubade.

Tour with Jose Limon through Far East and Japan.

1964 Tour Lucas Hoving Trio through England and The Netherlands. Taught Scapino Ballet and in studio Nel Roos.

May. Premiere Icarus and Incidental Passage.

June. Taught and performed in San Francisco.

1965 Created Satiana at the ADF with grant Rockefeller Foundation.

Taught at Iris Barbara Studio for Dance.

Taught at Cornell.

March. New York State Theater.

May/June. Summer Academy University of Oregon, Eugene.

Performed at Jacob's Pillow.

October. Carnegie Recital Hall, New York.

1966 May. Concert Theresa Kaufmann auditorium, 92nd Street "Y". Premiere Variations on the Theme of Electra. New York premiere The Tenants.

1967 Premiere Rough-in at ADF.

Performance The Moor's Pavane at the White House. Film registration of The Moor's Pavane for WNET.

March. Workshop and performance at Louisiana Dance Symposium at North Western State College, Louisiana.

Guest teacher Pembroke College. 175

1968 Ohio State University.

Premiere She's Leaving Home ... at Bronx Community College, New York.

Guest choreographer Culberg Balletten, Stockholm, Sweden.

1969 February. NYU, New York.

Aycock Auditorium. Carolina.

March. Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond.

April/October.Nashville Children Theater/YWCA, Tennessee. July. Choreography Home for Channel 13.

October. Meredith College, Raleigh, NC.

November. Goucher College, Baltimore. December. Wisconsin Union Theater at Madison University.

1970 Mankato State College Theater, Minnesota.

May. Season at City Center, New York.

May/June. Premiere Kaleidoscope for Bat-Dor, Israel. June. Choregraphy for Rotterdams Danscentrum.

Premiere Aubade II and Reflections. September. Vera Cruz, California.

Choreographic Institute/State Dance School in Stockholm, Sweden with Jooss.

1971-1978 Director Rotterdamse Dans Academie, The Netherlands.

1971 April. Premiere Collega with Rotterdams Dans­ centrum, The Netherlands. 176

1971 Premiere Zipcode and Assemblage at ADF.

August. Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Rice University, Houston, Texas.

Bell State University, Muncie, Indiana.

1972 Lucas Hoving Dance Company disbanded.

April. Y's Arts Council, Philadelphia.

Guest teacher Conwell Middle School, Kensington.

Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College.

1973 Performed in retrospective dance demonstration The Limon Dance Company after Limon died.

1974 Choreographed Songs for Chile for benefit concert Chilean Immigrants in Holland.

Artistic advisor The Traitor.

1977 Guest teacher Manhattanville College.

1978-1979 First Governmental Supervisor dance education in The Netherlands.

Project Director Music and Dance Junior Program at the American Dance Festival.

1979 Choreography course Stichting Danscontact. Theater School Amsterdam.

September. Coached Limon Company.

October. Taught gymnastics teachers Breda, The Netherlands.

Juilliard School, New York.

1980 January. Artistic advisor Limon Company.

April. University of Santa Barbara. 177

1981 Workshop Anna Halprin. Decides to stay in San Francisco.

Classes at California College of Performing Arts.

Guest teacher Juilliard School

1982 Restaged Songs for Chile for The Limon Company.

Mills College, Oakland, and Footwork Studio, San Francisco.

May. Premiere Collage.

Artistic Advisor Limon Company.

1983-1984 Instructor Footwork Studio, San Francisco.

1983-1988 Lucas Hoving Performance Group and Dance Lab.

1983 Premiere Landscape with Clouds.

1984 March. New Performance Gallery, San Francisco.

Premiere Six Short Dances, Pits and Thumbs, and Songs for a Distant Land, Vacillating Blues and Opus '84

June. Artistic Advisor Limon Company's first International Choreographic Residency at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs.

October. Premiere Growing Up In Public at Second Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. December. Marin County Playhouse.

Footwork Studio, San Francisco. 1985 Marin Community Playhouse, San Anselmo CA. New Performance Gallery, San Francisco.

Four Week School at Bennington College.

Recipient NEA Choreographer's Fellowship, 1985- 1989. 178

1985 Stanford University's Heritage Award from the California Dance Educators' Association.

1986 February. Tribute to Lucas Hoving by The Limon Company, The Joyce, New York.

Harvard Summer Dance Center.

Premiere Piaf, for Alica Condodina.

1987 Premiere Search. Izzie award for life's work in the Sustained Achievement category.

Bay Area Series at Laney College Theater.

October. Benefit concert Sarni Mahal Sufi Center, San Rafael.

1988 Lavina Nielsen died.

July. Laban Center International Summer School. London, Great Britain.

11 An Evening with Lucas Hoving. 11 University of Michigan and Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia.

1989 Taught three months in Guangzhou, mainland China, for ADF.

1991 Celebration of his seventy-ninth birthday by Ellen Webb's Talking Dance Project. Theater Artaud, San Francisco.

1992 July. Tribute to Lucas Hoving, at the American Dance Festival. Duke University, Durham NC.

1993 December. Invitation visit Rotterdamse Dans Academie, The Netherlands. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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McDonagh, Don. The Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Dance. Pennington: Chicago Review Press, A Capelle Book, 1970.

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"The Season in Review." Dance News, ... 1959.

"The 13th American Dance Festival. Magnificently Exciting Performances By Pearl Lang and Jose Limon. 11 Christian Science Monitor, August 27 1960.

"Strange Mixture of Dancing Moods." Christian Science Monitor, September 2 1961. 186

"Premieres in Connecticut. American Dance Festival." Christian Science Monitor, August 25 1962.

"Dance Festival Ups and Downs." August-September 1963.

"Season in Review." Dance News, May 1964.

"New works enliven dance festival." Christian Science Monitor, 1965.

Marks, Marcia. "Contemporary Dance Inc. 92nd Street 'Y'." Dance Magazine, February 1963.

"Lucas Hoving, Nancy Lewis, Chase Robinson 92nd Street 'Y' ." Dance Magazine, July 1966.

Maskey, Jacqueline. "The Contemporary Dance 3 Points of View." Dance Magazine, November 1965.

"Merry-Go-Round Twirls Again." Dance News, December 1955.

Mindlin, Naomi. "Jose Limon's 'The Moor's Pavane'. An Interview with Lucas Hoving." Dance Research Journal, 24/1 Spring 1992.

Morris, Gay. "Lucas Hoving Celebrates 79th Birthday in San Francisco." DCA News, Winter 1991.

Murphy, Ann. "A Snapshot Biography of Lucas Hoving." Pamphlet. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

Oser McLeod, Julie. "National Reviews. Santa Barbara." Dance Magazine, October 1986.

"Paens, Pavanes, and Premieres at .... Jose Limon and Group." Christian Science Monitor, 1960.

Palatsky, Eugene. "Myron is a Senior." Dance Magazine, April 1962.

"Meet Simon Sadoff." Dance Magazine, December 1963.

Phelps, Mary. "Reviews of the Month. Jose Limon and Corrpany." Dance Observer, February 1947.

Pollack, Barbara. "Jose Limon & Co in Europe." Dance Magazine, April 1958. 187

"A Program of dance choreographed by Lucas Hoving, at Fashion Institute Auditorium, N.Y. Dec. 16." Dance News, January 1963.

Rietstap, Ine. "Foreign Reports." Dance Magazine, June 1971.

Rosen, Lillie F. "Remy Charlip Fuses Dancing With Audience In BAM Setting." Jewish Journal, January 18 1985.

Ross, Janice. "Bay Area's 3rd 'Izzies' are bestowed." Dance Magazine, August 1987.

Rust, Rebecca. "Dance Team Production Is Original." N+O, October 12 1969. Sabin, Robert. " Reviews of the Month. Jose Limon and Company." Dance Observer, February 1948.

"Reviews of the Month. Choreographer's Workshop." Dance Observer, May 1950. "Reviews of the Month. Jose Limon and Company." Dance Observer, March 1954.

Seif, Morton. "American Dance Festival." Saturday Review, September 22 1956.

Shaw, Ellen. "At the YMHA. Dancing the Inexplicable Rationalities." Ev. Bulletin Philly, April 21 1972.

Sim, Catherine. "Hoving dancers carry on modern spirit." Independant Journal, February 19 1985.

Skif, Morton. "American Dance Festival." Saturday Review, September 22 1956.

Sorell, Walter. "Vitality Of Modern Dance Is Proved." The Providence Sunday Journal (Rhode Island) , September 6 1959. "Limon at New London." Saturday Review of Literature, Septemebr 1957.

"Reviews of the Month. Lucas Hoving and Company." Dance Observer, Februay 1963.

"Hoving & Co to Dance at Pembroke." Sunday Journal, 1968.

Stahl, Norma. "Conversation with Lucas Hoving." Dance Magazine, August 1955. 188

Stodelle, Ernestine. "A Bird's Eye View of a Bird-like Creature." Dance Observer, October 1960.

"Bennington Revitalized." Dance Magazine, October 1985.

Terry, Walter. "Mexico produces a new triumvirate. Limon, Chavez, Covarrubias." Dance, April 1951.

Thom, Dorothy. "Dance and all that." Press Journal (Englewood, NJ), January 10 1980.

Tobias, Tobi. "Only Make Believe." New York Magazine, November 5 1984.

Todd, Arthur. "Mexico reponds to modern dance and Jose Limon." Dance Observer, March 1951.

"Stage for Dancers. Louis Horst Lecture Demonstration." Dance Observer, December 1951.

"Transatlantic Exchange: Limon for London." Dance and Dancers, September 1957.

Vas sos, John. "Why-Modern Dance? Fairfield County Fair." July 1 1954/March 17 1955.

Wilder, Lucy. "Reviews of the Month. 'Stage for Dancers. 2: Pearl Lang, Lucas Hoving, Merce Cunningham. ' " Dance Observer, December 1951.

Warshawski, Evy. "Spotlight on ... Lucas Hoving. A Life Time of Modern Dance." Dance Teacher Now, April 1988.

"World of Dance. Perfection by the Thames." Fall 1967.

Newspaper articles

Ames, Richard. "Performance at UCSB. Dance Program Has Variety and Meaning." April 11 1971.

Anderson, Jack. "Bit of Chaos and Mirth." The New York Times, June 4 1992.

"Arrange For Circus." Hartford. Conn., Courant, June 12 1942.

"At 73, Lucas Hoving still keeps them on their toes." (Long Island) Newsday, February 23 1986.

"Ballet: A Fish Tale." Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. 189

Barnes, Clive. "Dance: New London Fete. Ruth Currier and Lucas Hoving Provide Excursions into Satire and Dada." The New York Times, August 20/21 1966.

"Dance : The Village Theater's Series. Lucas Hoving Company Offers Five Works." The New York Times, May 1 1967.

"Two Dance Giants And One Shadow." The New York Post, March 3 1986.

Barzel, Ann. "Jose Limon Proves His Maturity as Modern Dancer and Choreographer." The Chicago Sun-Times, February 22 1950.

Beals, Kathie. "Lucas Hoving, an exciting past ... a challenging present." Westchester Weekend, July 22 1977.

Beiswanger, George. "The American Dance Festival Turns To Dramatic Note." The New London. Connecticut Evening News, July 28 1962.

Belser, Emily. "Jose Limon Returns With Dance Group." Times­ Herald, Washington D.C., December 1 1949.

"'Big Top' Up This Week in Yonkers. Comfortable Seats And Stage Effects Used By Holland Classical Circus." June 9 1942.Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Archive Circus Kavaljos.

Bond, Christelle T. "Dance Notes. Lucas Hoving presents diverse program." The Sun (Baltimore), April 11 1972.

Briggs, John. "'Fall of the City' bows as an Opera. James Cohn's version of '37 Radio Play by MacLeish Has Baltimore Premiere." The New York Times, March 2 1960.

Butler, Susan L. "Dancer Hoving Wants to Teach." Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

Cassidy, Claudia. "On the Aisle. Jose Limon and Troupe Dance in Mandel Hall. Pauline Koner is Guest." The Chicago Daily Tribune, February 22 1950.

"Circus Fans Bringing Show Here to Aid USO." New Britain, Conn .. Herald, June 12 1942.

"In City (Center) Season." The New York Times, November 11 1949. 190

Cohen, Selma Jeanne. "Dance Fete Gives Two Premieres." The New York Times, August 17 1957.

"The Dance : Festival Connecticut College Presents New Works." The New York Times, August 25 1957.

D. W., "Lucas Hoving: A Teacher the Young Admire." Philadelphia Inquirer, April 16 1972.

"Dance Troupe Coming." Philadelphia Inquirer, November 1 1964.

Dre, Dianne. "Wall of Silence." (approx. August 1962)

Dunning, Jennifer. Paying Tribute to a Patriarch of Modern Dance. The New York Times, February 28 1986.

"Dance Limon Company." The New York Times, March 3 1986.

Earle, Anita. "The Superb Hoving Dancers." San Francisco Chronicle, April 17 1970.

"Famed Lucas Hoving Dance Company to Appear." The Carolinian, February 28 1969.

"Famous Horse Breeds At Circus in Yonkers. Favorites of Royalty Perform Country Show." Pleasantville, Towson, June 4 1942. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Archive Circus Kavaljos.

"Four-Footed Fiesta." Cue Says Go!. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Archive Circus Kavaljos.

Fried, Alexander. "Bold Visionary Dance Recital; 'Boheme' Pleases Big Turnout." March 17 1954. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Archive Circus Kavaljos.

Godfrey, Margaret. "Eliminating Audience Barriers is Dancer Lucas Hoving' s Goal . " The Day (New London, Conn. ) , July 8 1970.

Gold, Barbara. "Dancing, Sensing And Lucas Hoving." The Sun. Baltimore, November 2 1969.

Goldner, Nancy. "At the Painted Bride. Hoving dances his life story". Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Inquirer, March 29 1988.

Gould, Jack. "Tv.: Megan Terry's 'Home' on N.E.T .. " The New York Times, July 12 1969. 191

Green, Judith. "Constant Movement. Lucas Hoving fondly recalls a life in dance". San Jose (California) Mercury News, September 1 1991.

Greicus, Alberta. "Hoving Dancers Electrify Emens With Mod Illusion." The Muncie Star, Indiana, August 1971.

Greif, Jim. "Hoving explores new dance forms." The Duke Chronicle, October 22 1969.

"Holland Circus To Arrive Today." Bridgeport. Conn., Post, June 9 1942.

"Hoving Dancers at NYU Feb.5." The New York Post, January 17 /February 5 1969.

"Hoving Dance Trio To Appear Thursday." Corrony Souce. La, March 10 1967.

"Hoving Troupe Scheduled At American Dance Fest." The Courant Hartford. Conn., July 25 1971.

Hughes, Allen. "Dance. Festival Closes. Connecticut College Fete Ends With Jack Moor's 'Target'." The New York Times, August 21 1961.

"Ruth Currier, Lucas Hoving and Charles Weidman share Festival Program." The New York Times, July 30 1962.

"Dance : Festival Ends. Hoving, Taylor and McKayle Troupes in Program at Connecticut College." The New York Times, August 13 1963.

"Summer Dispersal of People Begins." The New York Times.

"Dance : Pioneer's Echo. Ruth Currier, Lucas Hoving and Charles Weidman Share Festival Program." The New York Times, July 29 1962.

Hughes Ingle, Thomas. "Dancers Exemplify Horst Tracings of Development of Modern Dance." New London (Conn.) Evening Day, August 4 1953.

I. I. "Modern Dancers To Visit Here." July 4 1965. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

Jacobs, Ellen. "Lucas Hoving Dance Company opens season at Connecticut College. ADF at July 11 1970." 192

Kent Bellows, George. "The Week's Music." The Evening Sun, Baltimore, March 2 1960.

Kerrigan, Tom. "Viva Limon. Lucas Hoving Artistic Advisor For Limon Season." December 31 1979.

Kisselgoff, Anna. "5-Work Program By Hoving Troupe Opens Dance Fete." The New York Times, July 13 1970.

"Dance : Remy Charlip's 'Ten Men'." The New York Times, October 18 1984.

"Dance Festival Wins Friends at Home." The New York Times, July 14 1967/1971.

"Lippizane, Frisian Horses Today with Holland Circus." Bridgeport. Conn .. Telegram, June 9 1942.

Love, Paul. "Hoving Trio: sly, delightful combination." East Lansing Towne Courier. November 15 1966. Vol.5 No.2.

"Lucas Hoving." The New York Times, August 8 1971.

"Lucas Hoving Group Offers New Dances In Series at N.Y.U .. " February 1969.

"Lucas Hoving teaching students in a dance composition class at the Juilliard School of Music." Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

Manchester, P. W. "American Dance Festival. New Doris Humphrey Work Given By Limon's Company." New York Herald Tribune, August 17 1957.

"Dance : New London Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 25 1957.

Mann, Beverley. "Datebook. An Eclectic Master Tells Personal Tales." San Francisco Chronicle, December 2 1984.

Martin, Bob. "Dancing still happens". 1967-68. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

Martin, John. August 28 1949.

The New York Times, August 1951.

"Mexican Dances Featured at Fete. 4 Girls From Below Border Join Limon and Troupe in Program at Connecticut College." The New York Times, August 18 1951. 193

"The Dance Sundries. Connecticut-Juvenilia- Rambert-Robbins." The New York Times, July 19 1959.

"Dance. Festival Opens 9th Year. Limon Performs Own Works at New London-Kaner and Currier Also on Bill." The New York Times, August 17 1956.

"Dance : Direction. Need For A Clarification Of Purpose In New London's Festival." The New York Times, August 26 1956.

Maskey, Jacqueline. "Hoving Dance Work Opens In The Bronx." March 22 1968. McDonagh, Don. "Premiere of Hoving' s 'Zipcode' Given at American Dance Fete." The New York Times, July 31/August 2 1971.

"Dance In Limon' s Steps. Under New Director, Troupe Performs With Typical Energy at Festival." The New York Times, July 14 1973.

McLaughlin, Russell. "Classic Play Made A Dance By Jose Limon." The Detroit News, February 24 1950.

McNamara, Joann. "Living legend recalls genesis of modern dance." Ann Harbor (Michigan) News, October 30 1988.

Mondragon, Ricardo. "De Ballet. Jose Limon." Mexico City. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Jose Limon clippings.

Morgenstern, Joseph. "'Riddle of Sheba', a Fable Given at Yonker's Temple." New York Herald Tribune, May 23 1960. Nelson, Diane. "Hoving To Give Dance Class."

"Netherlands Ballet Dancers Are Wed. Lovely High Noon Ceremony Performed in Saint George's." The Guelph Daily Mercury, June 8 1943. "Nightinggale with a toothache." February 22 1969.

"A Passion for Dance." The Cultural Page, 1977. "Patricia Christopher and Lucas Hoving." New York Herald Tribune, May 6 1962.

"Point, two, three, four." March 19 1961.

Pearre, Howell. "Di ff icul t Dance Well Executed." Nashville, October 4 (April 10) 1969. 194

Pfeil, Leslie. "New creations at dance festival score with audience." The Groton News (New London), August 2 1971.

Portela, Francisco V .. "La Danza Contemporanea en las Estados Unidos." Prensa, December 18 1949. (Mexico City)

"Refugee Horses. New York Herald Tribune, September 14 1941.

Rice, Vernon. "We Go To Theatre School-Oh Our Poor Aching Back." The New York Post, August 17 1946.

Ross, Janice. "Hoving brings joyous approach to dancing." The Tribune {Oakland), December 10 1984.

Russell, Fred H. "Holland Classical Circus Proves Horselovers' Paradise." Bridgeport, Conn., Post, June 11 1942.

"School Helps Gis Get Back in Show Business." 1946.

Simon, Natasha. "Recent Dance Offerings Include Remy Charlip, Atlanta Ballet. Men Only Perform in BAM Next Wave World Premiere." Prospect Heights (Brooklyn, NY) , November 1984.

Sorell, Walter. "Dance Festival's Final Week End Opens with Varied Mood, Impact." The Day (New London, Conn.), August 16 1963.

Stahle, Anna Greta. "Goer Stockholmsmiljoe f oer dansexperiment." 1970.

Stodelle, Ernestine. "Cunningham and Hoving Open Festival Season." August 7 1967.

"Pelgrimage to Bennington." The New Haven Register, August 4 1985.

Stron, Theodore. "Hoving Introduces 2 New Dances." The New York Times, April 6 1964.

Terry, Walter. "Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 17 1949.

"The Dance." New York Herald Tribune, August 7 1950.

"The Dance World. Builders of Mexico's Dance Art : Covarrubias, Chavez, Limon & Co. " New York Herald Tribune, April 8 1951.

"The Dance World. Report on Jose Limon : A Success Story of Modern Dance in Mexico." New York Herald Tribune, October 22 1951. 195

"The Dance." New York Herald Tribune, August 1951.

"The Dance." New York Herald Tribune, August 19 1951.

"Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 18 1956.

"Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 20 1956.

"Dance. High and Lows at New London." New York Herald Tribune, August 26 1956.

"Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 18 1958.

"Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 17 1959.

"Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, August 21 1960.

"Dance. American Dance Festival." New York Herald Tribune, July 30 1962.

"Dance. I Odysseus." New York Herald Tribune, August 20 1962.

"Dance Festival Whirls Into High Gear." New York Herald Tribune, August 17 1963.

"Dance Festival Ends With 40 Novelties." New York Herald Tribune, August 19 1963.

"Teacher, daughter, and mother." 1953

Tucker, Marilyn. "Choreography That Satisfies." San Francisco Chronicle, March 19 1984. "'Growing Up' A Master's Autobiographical Dance." San Francisco Chronicle, April 29 1985.

Ulrich, Allan. "S.F. premiere of a man who made dance history." San Francisco Examiner, May 20 1982.

"At 72, Hoving gives the dance youth." San Francisco Examiner, December 8 1984.

"A 'Top Gun' of modern dance." San Francisco Examiner. May 25 1988. 196

"Tribute illuminates giant in U.S. dance . Lucas Hoving honored for six decade career." San Francisco Examiner, September 4 1991.

Wallace, Weldon. "Music Notes. Double Bill at Peabody." The Sun, Baltimore, March 2 1960.

Webster, Daniel. "Hoving Polishes the Dance To a Smooth Art at YMHA." The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 21 1972.

"Lucas Hoving : A Teacher the Young Admire." The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 16 1972.

Wilkinson, A .A. "Dancer Pleases Big Audience." Greensboro, N.C., Record, November 18 1949.

"Your Body Tells What You Are, Says Limon." To Dance Is Human. March 1957.

Zimmer, Elizabeth. "A Wizard Comes East." The Village Voice, October 23 1984.

Programs and Playbills

"Academia de la Danza Mexicana. Ballet Mexicano con Jose Limon." December 11 1951 Program. San Francisco Performing Arts Library.

"Afscheid Lucas Hoving." Invitation for informal celebration of Lucas Hoving' s parting from the Rotterdamse Dans Academie. June 6 1978. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings.

"American Dance Festival Tribute to Lucas Hoving." East Duke Nelson Music Room, Duke University, June 29 1992. American Dance Festival, Durham NC. "The American Museum of Natural History presents Jose Limon and Dance Company, with Pauline Koner (guest artist) in 'Theatre in Dance.'" May 18 1951 program. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Jose Limon clippings.

"The B. de Rothschild Foundation presents American Dance. 11 Program poster Alvin Theatre, April 14-26 1953. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"The B. de Rothschild Foundation presents American Dance. 3 weeks of the greatest in contemporary dance, beginning Tuesday, May 3." Program and poster 1955. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lavina Nielsen clippings. 197

"Biography Lucas Hoving February 3 1989." San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"California College of Performing Arts presents Master Dancer Lucas Hoving, April 6- May 29." Program workshop 1981. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Centerspace Dance Foundation Inc. presents: A program of dances by Lucas Hoving." Program March 16-17 1984. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Clark Center presents a lecture demonstration by Lucas Hoving with his choreographic workshop. May 15th." 1965. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Connecticut College Presents ... Jose Limon and Dance Company. August 24, 1952." Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, New London. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Jose Limon clippings.

"On Constancy. A talk given by Jose Limon at the 20th Anniversary School of Dance Convocation in Palmer Auditorium of Connecticut College, on Monday evening, July 10, 1967." Betty Jones Scrapbook, The Limon Foundation, New York.

"Contemporary Dance Inc. presents a program of dances by Lucas Hoving. Sunday, December 16." 1965. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Dancer's Group, Inc. presents ... The Lucas Hoving Performance Group." December 7, 8, 14, 15. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Dancer's Group presents Lucas Hoving Performance Group." New Performance Gallery, San Francisco. April 26-27 1985. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Ellen Webb Dance Foundation. Talking Dance Project. Lucas Hoving: A Life in Dance." September 1991, San Francisco. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"The Foundation for the Arts, Religion and Culture presents The Contemporary Dance: 3 Points of View." October 14 1965, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings. 198 "Friends in the SF Bay area are honoring Lucas Hoving. At Theatre Artaud, September 3 1991." San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings. "Laban Centre. International Summer School 18-29 July 1988." London. Program. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York. Lucas Hoving clippings. "Jose Limon. January 29, 30, 31-February 5, 6, 7." Program Juilliard Concert Hall. 1954? New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Jose Limon clippings. "Jose Limon and Dance Company with Pauline Kaner. 'Theatre in the Dance'." San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Jose Limon clippings. "Juilliard School of Music presents Jose Limon and Dance Company with Pauline Kaner." Juilliard Concert Hall, December 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14. 1953. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Jose Limon clippings. "Juilliard School of Music presents a new dance work 'Performance' . " April 14 and 15. No year. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center, New York. Jose Limon clippings. "Lavina Nielsen, Lucas Hoving, Jose limon Dance Company New York." Dance calendar with picture, July 30 - August 5 1954. New York Public Library at lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings. "The Limon Company, January 25 1975." Program, San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings. "Louis Horst 1884-1964. Louis Horst Memorial Program. August 16 1964." Betty Jones Scrapbook, The Limon Foundation, New York. "Lucas Hoving with Nancy Lewis & Chase Robinson. Choreography by Lucas Hoving." 1967. P.r. material, Joan Abouchar, New York. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings. "The Lucas Hoving Performance Group." Press release, January 17 1985. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Lucas Hoving clippings. "Lucas Hoving Scrapbook. Lucas Hoving Tribute Night at the Joyce, February 28 1986, as organized by the Limon Compnay, New York." The Limon Foundation, New York. 199

"Modern Dancer Lucas Hoving To Appear November 10." 1964. Poster The Playhouse, Philadelphia. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"The School of Continuing Education of New York University presents 'Twentieth-Century Dance. Erick Hawkins, Lucas Hoving, Seamus Murphy." School of Education Auditorium. 1969 subscription flyer. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"A Snapshot Biography of Lucas Hoving." Flyer for the Tribute to Lucas Hoving. The American Dance Festival, Duke University, Durham NC, 1992.

"Spencer Barefoot presents the 1952-1953 season of Celebrity Concerts. Veterans' Auditorium War Memorial Building. 11 Program Jose Limon and Dance Company in 'Theatre in the Dance'. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Jose Limon clippings.

"Spencer Barefoot presents the 1953-1954 season of Celebrity Concerts. Veterans' Auditorium War Memorial Building." Program Jose Limon and Dance Company with Pauline kOner in 'Theatre in the Dance.' March 17 1954. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Jose Limon clippings.

"Spencer Barefoot presents the 1956-1957 season of Celebrity Concerts. Jose Limon Dance Theatre. Curran Theatre, March 17 1957." Program. San Francisco Performing Arts Library. Jose Limon clippings.

11 An Evening with Lucas Hoving; Modern Dancer. " The Summer Academy of Contemporary Art. University of Oregon, Eugene, Spring 1965. Program lecture demonstration. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

Video and Film Viewings, Letters, Interviews and Workshops

Burgering, Jacques J. and Jacobs, Maria J.F. Interview with Lucas Hoving. San Francisco, June 3-8 1992.

Burgering, Jacques J. Interview with Carla Maxwell, artistic director of the Limon Company, New York. New York, September 22 1994.

Burgering, Jacques J. Interview with Dola de Jong, life-time friend of Lucas Hoving. New York, December 3 1994. 200

Burgering, Jacques J. Telephone Interview with Lucas Hoving. New York/San Francisco, February 3 1995.

Burgering, Jacques J. Interview with Lucas Hoving. San Rafael, May 1-3 1995.

"Interview with Lucas Hoving." Press release. No date. Around 1984. San Francisco Performing Atrts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

Letter Agnes DeMille Prude to Carla Maxwell, January 2 1986. Lucas Hoving Scrapbook, The Limon Foundation, New York.

Letter Jose Limon to Pauline, Betty and Lucas on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of "The Moor's Pavane." Stockton, N.J. September 1 1959. Betty Jones Scrapbook. The Limon Foundation, New York.

Maxwell, Carla, Artistic Director Limon Company, to Christopher Lyle. January 22 1986. Lucas Hoving Scrapbook Tribute Night 1986, The Limon Foundation, New York.

"Minutes faculty meeting Connecticut College School of Dance, July 14 1966." Betty Jones' Scrapbook, The Limon Foundation, New York.

Murphy, Ann. "A Snapshot Biography of Lucas Hoving." San Francisco. Unpublished. Photocopied. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"From Butcher shop to Broadway and Beyond." San Francisco. Unpublished. Photocopied. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

Ross, Janice. "Oceans In The Sky; Lucas Hoving in San Francisco (1981-1991) ." Lecture for Tribute night Lucas Hoving in San Francisco, September 4 1991. Unpublished. Photocopied. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

Schlottman, Jeanette, Connecticut College New London, to Miss Betty Jones, July 29 1960. Betty Jones Scrapbook, T h e Limon Foundation, New York.

Walleck, Susan E. Interview with Lucas Hoving, February 25 1985. Unpublished. Photocopied.

Warshawski, Evy. Text From Taped Interview With Lucas Hoving. November 1987. Conducted by E.W. for Dance Teacher Now. Photocopied. 201

Press releases and Publicity Materials

"Critic's comments." Press-release 1980s. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"A dance concert to benefit Sarni Mahal Sufi Center, with Lucas Hoving and Dancers, and special guest appearances by The Lines Dance Company, Joah Lowe and Leslie Dunn." Poster and press-release October 19 1987. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Dancelab." Press-release performance April 26, 27, 28 1984. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings. "An Evening with Lucas Hoving. 1988 Tour of United States." Press-release September 7, 1987. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Jose Limon and Dance Company. Jose Limon and his Dance Theatre." Publicity pamphlet 1950s, 20 pp. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Jose Limon clippings.

Kerrigan, Tom. "Lucas Hoving Artistic Advisor for Limon Season." Press-release, December 31 1979. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Lucas Hoving at the Bay Area Dance Series." Press-release, July 31 1987. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Lucas Hoving Bay Area Workshops. Schedule of Classes, April 6 May 29 1981." Registration form. San Francisco Perfoming Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"Lucas Hoving Dance Company opens season at Connecticut College, American Dance Festival on July 11." Press­ release 1970. New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"The Lucas Hoving Performance Group will perform on Friday and Saturday February 15-16 at Marin Community Playhouse."

Press release January 17, 1985. San Francisco Performing Arts Library, Lucas Hoving clippings.

"The Ohio State University Dance Area announces Lucas Hoving, artist-in-residence 1968." New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. Dance Collection, Lucas Hoving clippings. 202

"We've moved, But We Brought Our Reputation With Us. 11 Flyer American Dance Festival. The Limon Foundation, New York. DUTCH BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Hartong, Corrie. Danskunst. Inleiding tot het wezen en de practijk van de dans. Leiden: Sijthoff, 1948. Over dans gesproken. Rotterdam: Ad Danker, 1982.

Kloeters, Jacques. 100 Jaar Amusement in Nederland. 's­ Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij, 1987.

Rebling, Dr. E. Een eeuw danskunst in Nederland. Amsterdam: N.V. Em. Querida's uitgeverij, 1950. Schaik, Eva van. Op Gespannen Voet. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse theaterdans vanaf 1900. Bussum, 1981. Utrecht, Luuk. Van hofballet to postmoderne-dans. De geschiedenis van het akademische ballet en de moderne­ dans. Zutphen: De Walburg Pers, 1988.

Periodicals, Pamphlets, Journals and Dissertations

"Balletrepetitie." 1938. Netherlands Institute for the Dance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Lucas Hoving clippings. Danker, Janny. "De Rotterdamse Dansacademie. Meer dan gewoon pasjes doen." Notes, 1994-1995.

Hartong, Corrie. "De dans in Nederland." Jaarboek der Nederlandsche Kunst. I. Leiden: Sijthoff, 1947. Hornstra, Dr.L. "Journalistiek en Kritiek." Danskroniek, Mrdl 1952, volume 6. no.5. "Jose Limon, American Dance Company." Danskroniek, December 1957, volume 10, no.12. Huf, Emmy. "Schouwburgdirecteur Evert Smit heeft meer problemen dan 'toneel' alleen." Accent, November 7 1970. Huijts, Johan. "Bij het weerzien van de Groene Tafel." Danskroniek, February 1952, volume 6 No.4. 203 204

"Ingezonden." Danskroniek, October 1956, volume 9 no.10.

Johannsen, Elizabeth. "Man en vrouw van het ballet gelijkwaardige functie, verschillende uitvoering." Danskroniek, July-August 1956, volume 9 no.7/8. "Jose Limon over de man als danser." Danskroniek, July-August 1956, volume 9 no.7/8. Jong, Dola de. "Kunst en Letteren. Tussen Groningen en New York." Elsevier, May 20 1967.

"Jose Limon in Nederland." Danskroniek, November 1957, vol .10, no.11.

Koelewijn, Jannetje, en Micheels, Pauline. "Oliedrums en circuspaarden. De oorlog van een geniale grootindustrieel." Vrij Nederland, January 2 1993.

Lam, Paul 't. "Florrie Rodrigo: 'In mijn dans klaagde ik de maatschappij aan.'" Hervormd Nederland, January 21 1984.

"Lucas Hoving." Danskroniek, February-March 1958, vol .11 m2.

"Petit Battements." Danskroniek, July 1946, volume 1, no.1. "Petit Battements." Danskroniek, March 1947, volume 1 no.9.

"Ronde jambes parterre." Danskroniek, October 1956, vol.9 no.10.

Schulman, Jennie. "Jose Limon. Amerika' s vertolker van de vrije dans." Danskroniek, April 1951, volume 5 no.6.

"American attitudes." Danskroniek, January 1952, volume 6 no.3. "Het seizoen in Mexico 1952." Danskroniek, August 1952, volume 6 no.10.

"Jose Limon & Company." Danskroniek, February 1953, volume 7 no.2.

Schultink, Joop. "De Groene Tafel Verouderd?" Danskroniek, April 1952, volume 6 no.6.

"De dans als geestelijke rijping van de man en van de vrouw." Danskroniek, July-August 1957, volume 10 no.7-8.

"De dans als geestelijke riJping (vervolg) ."Dans­ kroniek, September 1957, volume 10 no.9. 205

Schwi t ter, M. E. "Lucas Hovinga' s Danscarriere. Een Nederlander die succes had in Amerika (1) ." Wereldkroniek, October 15 1955.

"Lucas Hovinga's Danscarriere. Een Nederlander die succes had in Amerika (slot). Wereldkroniek, October 22 1955.

Tak, Max. "Nederlandse dansers in het buitenland." Elsevier, June 11 1966.

Tugal, Dr.Pierre. "De opkomst van Kurt Jooss." Danskroniek, December 1951, volume 6 no.2.

Verwer, Hans. "Lucas Hoving." Danskroniek, April 1951, volume 5 no.6.

"De vrouw en de man in het ballet." Danskroniek, October 1955, volume 8 no.11.

Newspaper Articles

Baart, Jan. "Florrie Rodrigo, danseres voor de arbeiders, negentig jaar. 'Ik wil wel honderd worden maar alleen als ik goed ben.'" Haarlems Dagblad, September 6 1983.

"Ballerina Florrie Rodrigo geridderd." Trouw, September 5 1983.

"Ballet van Hoving voor Rotterdams Danscentrum." IJmuider Courant, May 24 1970.

"Het Ballet der Lage Landen." 1958.

"Ballets Igor Schwezoff." Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, January 16 1933.

"Ballet Yvonne Georgi." June 7 1939.

"Ballet te Scheveningen. Balletgroep Yvonne Georgi." Algemeen Handelsblad, August 5 1938.

"Ballet Yvonne Georgi voor de Wagnervereniging. Prometheus bevolkt de aarde. Concertgebouw o .1. v. L. M. G. Arntzenius." De Telegraaf, April 20 1939?

"Balletten Yvonne Georgi. Kurhaus." August 5 1938.

"Balletten Yvonne Georgi. Drie choreografische premieres van Wijdeveld, Mozart en Ravel." Het Vaderland, August 17 1938. 206

"Balletten Yvonne Georgi. Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam." 1939.

"Dansavond Yvonne Geogri." August 5 1938.

"Dansberichten. Yvonne Georgi uit Amerika terug." January 29 1939. "De nieuwe directeur. Evert Smit." De Tijd, January 24 1957.

"Dola de Jong vertaalt blijspel 'En ik dan?'." Het Parool, April 2 1969. Eijsselstein, Ben van. "Jose Limon's danskunst wint bij herhaald zien. Openbaar optreden in K. en W." Haagsche Courant, November 18 1957.

"Lucas Hoving teruggekeerd in Nederland. Vakantie met. . . zestien lesuren per week." Haagsche Courant, March 29 1958. "Lucas Hoving vertelt dansend en danst vertellend. Gemeenschappel ij ke demonstratie van woord en gebaar." Haagsche Courant, May 14 1958.

"'In Nederland is zoveel talent,' zegt Lucas Hoving." De Telegraaf, August 31 1961.

"Evert P.Smit. Kenner van het theaterleven." HetParool, January 24 1957.

De Groene Amsterdammer, January 28 1950.

"Greninger Lucas Hoving werd een danser van Amerikaans formaat." Spring 1958.

Happel, Frans. "Nieuwe Directeur Dansakademie. 'Als danser sta ik nogal schizofreen in 't leven' ." Het Parool, April 24 1971.

"Honderd jaar worden, dan ben je een wonder!" Het Parool, August 19 1983. Kamphoff, A.T. "Lucas Hoving : Boeiende dans. Verrasssingen van ernst tot kolder." Het Parool, May 29 1964.

"Karel Poons." Trouw, March 16 1992.

"Karel Poons." De Volkskrant, March 17 1992.

"Karel Poons overleden." Algemeen Dagblad, March 16 1992. 207

Lanz, Isabelle. '"Bekkenslag schoot rechts in verkeerde keelgat.' Florrie Rodrigo negentig." =D~e~~W~a~a=r~h~e~1=·d~, September 3 1983.

"Ida Last-Ter Haar overleden." Het Parool, November 11 1982.

J., H. "Tooneelspelen, die niet worden opgevoerd. 'Gevangenisdrama' van C. de Dood. De auteur draagt zijn werk voor." February 23 1931.

Ledeboer, Hans W. "Lucas Hoving over balletopleiding." Trouw/Kwartet, March 30 1973.

"Rotterdam eert Hoving. Wolffert van Borsselen penning van de Leuve." Trouw, June 8 1978.

"De les van Lucas Hoving." De Telegraaf, May 14 1958.

Lewin, Lisette. "Florrie Rodrigo." De Volkskrant, July 24 1982.

"Lucas Hoving." Volkskrant, April 28 1958. "Lucas Hoving danst Amerikaans met een Nederlands hart." Volkskrant (medewerker), May 29 1964.

"Lucas Hoving gastdocent." Rotterdamsch Parool, November 2 4 1958.

"Lucas Hoving gastdocent bij Dans-Academie van Toonkunst." May 14 1958.

"Lucas Hoving (achttien jaar Amerikaan) Holland is 'n andere wereld." Parool, May 3D 1964.

"Lucas Hoving : 'Je kan niet dansen met een star gezicht'." Haagsch Dagblad, May 14 1958.

"Lucas Hoving over modern ballet." Het Binnenhof, May 14 1958.

"Lucas Hoving sprak over balletkunst." Nieuwe Haagsche Courant, May 14 1964.

"Lucas Hoving : Verrassing." Nieuws van de Dag, June 1 1964.

"Lukas Hoving c.s. in de Lantaren." NRC medewerker, Mei 1964.

Lunshof, Geesje. "Lukas Hovinga leert dansen zonder a." 1964,

"'In Nederland is zoveel talent, ' zegt Lucas Hoving." De Telegraaf, August 31 1961. 208

"Optocht en ballet, der Koningin waardig. Onvergetelijk schouwspel. H. M. dankt de Koningin van de Dans." De Telegraaf, September 11 1938.

R. , H. "Ballet van Yvonne Georgi. Amsterdamse premiere van 'Bolero'." 1939. Ballet van Yvonne Georgi. Bewonderenswaardige momenten." 1939. Roelfs, Jan. "Voor Schouwburgdirecteur zakt het doek. Het theaterleven van Evert Smit." Trouw, December 24 1977.

Schaik, Eva van. "'Ik ben rood en ik blijf rood. daar is niets aan te doen.'" Trouw, September 3 1983.

Schultink, Joop. "Ballet op z'n Amerikaans. Lucas Hoving spot met de klassieke dans." May-June 1964. Smit, Els. "'Buig wat minder, stel de wereld aan de kaak.' Florrie Rodrigo, 'n rijk rood leven." Het Vrije Volk, May 1 1982.

Spierdijk, Jan. "Jef Last portretteert Andre Gide. Memoires al op komst. Oak hij schrij ft 'sneller dan God kan lezen.'" De Telegraaf, March 10 1967.

Toorn, Joke van der. "Pensioen maar geen afscheid. 'Zolang ik kan blij f ik aan ballet doen' . " Algemeen Dagblad, May 26 1978.

"Uitsluitingen op kunstgebied. Yvonne Georgi en haar ballet." De Maasbode, October 31 1945.

"Uitspraken Centrale Eereraad voor de kunst. Badings, Georgi en Arntzenius." Nieuwe Courant, January 10 1946.

Vermaas-Beek, Willy. "Amerika maakt cud-Greninger onrustig. Lucas Hoving 'Jong Holland is heerlijk'." Algemeen Dagblad, September 16 1970.

"Vluchtige Ontmoetingen. Lucas Hoving, eerste solo dancer van Limon." Rotterdamsch Parool, November 28 1957.

Voeten, Jessica. "Dansen in dienst van de revolutie." NRC Handelsblad, August 26 1983.

Vogel, Hans. "Karel Peons ruil Scapino voor 'luieren'. 'Ik geloof dat ik straks all es gemakkelijk kan loslaten.'" Het Parool, May 18 1977. 209

"Lucas Hoving een 'Balletzigeuner' . " Parool, December 28 1979. , "Schwezovs invloed op ballet was groot." Het Parool, November 10 1982. W., H.J. "Uitstekend dans recital van Lucas Hoving." De Tijd/Maasbode, May 29 1964. W., N. de. "De hedendaagse dans in de Verenigde Staten." Het Vaderland, May 14 1958. Wagener, W. "Dansgroep Lucas Hoving werd enthousiast begroet. Ernst en humor on nieuwe eigen stijl." Rotterdams Nieuwsblad, May 29 1964. "Wagnervereeniging. Ballet Yvonne Georgi." 1939. Werumeus Buning, J. W. F. "Ballets Igor Schwezoff. Nieuwe dansen en divertissementen in den Stadsschouwburg. Een zeer geslaagde avond." 1933 "Ballet ten Yvonne Georgi. Dansavond in het Scheveningse Kurhaus. Lichte sierlijkheid, gepaard met grooten stijl." De Telegraaf, August 5 1938. "Yvonne Georgi en haar balletgroep. Buitengewone voorstelling van ' Prometheus' en 'Le Tricorne' . " De Telegraaf, April 4 1939. Ziegler, M.R. "Lucas Hoving na 33 jaar terug. 'Ik ontdekte meer en meer dat Europa voor mij Nederland was. '" De Telegraaf, May 27 1971.