In Reel 1, Carmen De Lavallade discusses her childhood and when she started dancing at the Thomas Jefferson High School, in East Los Angeles, around 1948; story of Ronald Gaffney partnering her at a school assembly; studying and performing with Lester Horton; attending junior high and high school with Alvin Ailey; Alvin Ailey taking over Lester Horton's studio/theater after Horton's death; her experience dancing with Jack Cole in a movie; participating in the film Carmen Jones and performing in House of Flowers by Herbert Ross; shown Camera 3 film of Lester Horton Dancers in Sarong Paramaribo; performing with John Butler at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; dancing with her mentor and actress Mildred Dunnock in the John Bulter film, Touch of Loss; the film Porgy and Bess for the Gershwin Years TV program; joining and teaching at the Yale Repertory Theatre, and its performance of Midsummer Night's Dream; Yale drama students she worked with included Henry Winkler, Meryl Streep, and Sigourney Weaver; working with Sarah Caldwell in a German opera at the Boston Opera. Reel 2 begins with De Lavallade talking about getting acting work in Seattle as mother in Blood Wedding and at the Guthrie Theater with Peter Sellar's Hang on to me; experience being part of a bus tour; choreographing at the Metropolitan Opera; being head of the Dance Dept. for three years at Adelphi University; acting in several movies including John Sayle's Lone Star and Adam Sandler's Big Daddy; brief Question & Answer session with talk of the Carmen Jones film, her feelings about Hip Hop dance; her experiences with racism on the Ed Sullivan Show and being arrested for attending a racially mixed party.
Series statement
Susan Hess Modern Dance Lecture Series Video Archive
Uniform title
Touch of loss (Choreographic work : Butler)
Estilo de tù (Choreographic work : Horton)
Sweet Bitter Love (Choreographic work : De Lavallade)
Susan Hess Modern Dance Lecture Series Video Archive.