Carmen de Lavallade: Remembering it her way

Carmen de Lavallade in As I Remember It (photo: Stephanie Berger)

Carmen de Lavallade's solo, As I Remember It, seems to rip by in a flash, faster than its by-the-clock hour length. Premiered last June at Jacob's Pillow, now presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center, it's less a comprehensive tale of a life unfolding at the epicenter of American entertainment than a gesture towards that history and its dazzling characters--Lester Horton, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte, Alvin Ailey, Jack Cole, Duke Ellington and de Lavallade's late husband, the multi-talented Geoffrey Holder, among so many more. And, of course, as a de Lavallade gesture--direct, shaped with elegance and efficiency--it doesn't need much embellishment. Everything in this production, from set to video to text, works by light touch.

The title tells us two things. First, these are de Lavallade's remembrances of her six-decade-plus career in dance, theater and film; others, she knows, might recall people and events differently. Second, we can expect a little tongue twisting and a few--very few--memory slips along the way. At 83, though, de Lavallade commands better alignment and lively, playful dexterity of body and mind than a lot of folks many years younger.

The memories, brief as snapshots, come with sensory sharpness: a hardworking father's hands, one rough, one smooth; a mother often sitting and staring; the sinuous coils of smoke from ballet teacher Carmelita Maracci's cigarette. Maracci, impatient, would upbraid de Lavallade: "Carmen, talk to your feet! What are they saying to you?" Carmen: "Help!"

In her dance of story, de Lavallade lights but never lingers. She keeps it moving, even when she speaks of racism. Particularly when she speaks of racism. Of being selected to study with LA dance master and choreographer Lester Horton, she says, "In those days, there were only some people who would take you if you were colored. And the white girls would walk out of class." If Hollywood is Hollyweird (as a sign says), we're not privy to a lot of the gritty details of what makes it so. I suspect de Lavallade is one of those sisters--I see them all around me today--who survive and thrive by keeping positive-mind phasers set to stun. I must study this.

Go see As I Remember It and marvel at how good the young de Lavallade looked in any setting, how thoroughly self-possessed. Time has diminished absolutely nothing of that.

Collaborators:

Joe Grifasi (director)
Talvin Wilks (co-writer/dramaturg)
James F. Ingalls (lighting design)
Maya Ciarrocchi (video design)
Mimi Lien (set design)
Christopher J. Bailey (sound design)
Esther Arroyo (costume design)
Jane Ira Bloom (music)

As I Remember It continues: February 20-21 and 24 at 8pm as well as a February 25 at 1pm (with a moderated conversation with de Lavallade).

When advance tickets are no longer available, a wait list will begin at the Box Office one hour prior to show time on the day of the performance. In the event of last minute cancellations, seats may be released and sold to those on the wait list on a first-come, first-served basis.

Jerome Robbins Theater
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenue), Manhattan
(map/directions)

For Carmen de Lavallade, the dance goes on

Carmen de Lavallade Still Captivates Onstage at 83
by Danielle C. Belton, The Root, October 30, 2014

BAC FLicks screens Lidberg's "Labyrinth Within"

Trailer for Pontus Lidberg's Labyrinth Within (2010, Sweden, 28.5 min.)

Jury Prize for Best Picture, Dance on Camera Festival 2012, New York

Labyrinth Within--screened this week at Baryshnikov Arts Center--opens with a horizontally compressed view of a dizzying swirl of bare torsos belonging, provocatively, to the film's male performers. They are director/choreographer Pontus Lidberg, a remarkably lithe dancer, and the brooding Giovanni Bucchieri, who also played a similarly sensual role in Lidberg's award-winning film, The Rain (2006).

After your half-hour with Labyrinth Within, you might walk away uncertain of what you just saw. (Who's who? What's what? What's with that mask you see for a split second?) But asking this film to deliver straight answers is like asking a dream to get out of bed and make you bacon and eggs. That's not its job. Lidberg's project, co-written with dramaturg Niklas Holmgren, deals with mystery--change itself--as a permanent reality.

Labyrinth Within's layers slip through your awareness through multiple pathways--dramatic lighting and suspenseful camerawork; Bucchieri's brooding melancholy; rapturous, expressionistic duets between Lidberg and his female muse, the versatile NYCB principal Wendy Whelan, and the tension-building power of David Lang's original and arranged music. Place matters, too. The work--developed in residencies at BAC and Joyce SoHo but mostly filmed within the muted, under-furnished interior of a Stockholm apartment--turns upon evocative architectural as well as psychological space. In the discussion that followed BAC's screening, Lidberg, quite rightly, volunteered few revelations about his beautiful film but did dangle this tidbit: "I had a very eccentric father and grew up in an apartment with things like secret doors."

Upcoming at BAC Flicks: Carmen & Geoffrey (2005), a documentary on the lives and careers of Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder by filmmakers Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob. The screening will be followed by a discussion with de Lavallade. Tuesday, April 24, 7pm. For further information and ticketing, click here.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
(map and directions)

Partners in love and art

Craving some uplift in this season of lack and dread? Spend some time with Carmen & Geoffrey--that would be that regal couple, Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder--in a generous, charming documentary directed by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob. It opens this Friday at Manhattan's Quad Cinema for a six-day run.

What I most love about this film is not its behind-scenes peeks at the creative process, or its gentle intertwining of personal histories with the story and major personalities of modern dance and popular entertainment in America. I most treasure the filmmakers' calm but direct insight into what it took for these gifted artists to rise, in a racist society, to the summit of their professions.

I'm moved by the young Holder's headstrong determination to push past dyslexia and express a whole range of artistic talents--dance, visual arts, music and more. It makes me sit up a bit taller when I recognize (and identify with) the haughty Caribbean-ness of something Holder told John Lahr: "I walk through doors. If I'm not wanted in a place, there's something wrong with the place, not me." For her part, de Lavallade, remembering their friendship with Josephine Baker, remarks, "You learn from people who are not afraid of who they are." (Yeah, you're right!) And so, we can learn from these fabulous two: how an artist crafts a world of his own from what ever comes to hand; how respect and reverence and everyday friendship help a marriage last over half a century; how to conquer by vision, self-discipline, love and generosity.

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CARMEN AND GEOFFREY
Directed by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob
Distributed by First Run Features

80 minutes, color; 2006

with: Carmen de Lavallade; Geoffrey Holder; Boscoe Holder; Leo Holder; Gus Solomons jr; Dudley Williams; Judith Jamison; Jennifer Dunning; Alvin Ailey; Josephine Baker

Quad Cinema -- March 13-18, 2009
34 West 13th Street, Manhattan
212-255-8800

An intimate look at two extraordinary personalities, Carmen De Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, married fifty-three years. De Lavallade, a legendary dancer and choreographer whose career began in California, came to New York with Alvin Ailey, performing as a soloist with his company and as a ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera. Holder, a 6'6" "gentle giant" from Trinidad, has worked as a Broadway dancer, actor, director, choreographer, costume and set designer, painter and musician, winning a Tony Award for directing "The Wiz."

"More than an outstanding, five-decade creative collaboration," says Dance Magazine, CARMEN AND GEOFFREY which had its premiere with DFA's Dance on Camera Festival co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, tells "one of the dance world's great love stories." Atkinson's film, shot over three years, explores this romantic and creative partnership. Containing rare dance footage from the 50's and 60's, featuring Alvin Ailey, Herbert Ross, Lester Horton, Joe Layton, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker in Paris, among others, the film also features contemporary works, including Carmen's on-going partnership with Gus Solomons, Jr and Dudley Williams.

Filmmaker Linda Atkinson first met Carmen and Geoffrey while studying acting at the Yale School of Drama. She graduated with an MFA, having won the Carol Dye Acting Prize, and has since performed at theatres around the country. Working with her husband, Nick Doob, she produced a prize-winning series of health-related documentaries for high school students. She has recently directed an original play, FINEPRINT, at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. She is currently producing a film based on Robert Coles's "Women of Crisis."

Nick Doob has been a director, cinematographer and editor on numerous award-winning films. He has shot four Oscar-nominated films including FROM MAO TO MOZART, which won an Oscar. He directed DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN with D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY, which won an Emmy. In 2000 he won an Emmy as a producer on AMERICAN HIGH, the acclaimed verité TV series. For HBO he co-directed A BOY'S LIFE with Rory Kennedy, and is currently directing and producing a film about Alzheimer's Disease for HBO.

"Carmen & Geoffrey" doc opens March 13

Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob open their documentary Carmen & Geoffrey at New York's Quad Cinema on March 13. The film traces the career and love story of Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, dazzling stars of concert dance, Broadway, television and film.

The film contains rare dance footage from the 1950s and 1960s, both solos and duets, featuring Alvin Ailey, Herbert Ross, Lester Horton, Joe Layton, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker in Paris, among others. There are also contemporary works, including Carmen’s on-going partnership with Gus Solomons jr and Dudley Williams and a sampling of Carmen’s and Geoffrey’s current choreographies.

Filmmaker Bios

Filmmaker Linda Atkinson first met Carmen and Geoffrey while studying acting at the Yale School of Drama. She graduated with an MFA, having won the Carol Dye Acting Prize. She has performed around the country at theatres including The Old Globe, the Yale Rep., the Indiana Rep., the Folger, and the Alaska Rep, New York’s Playwright’s Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, The Public, and with Lyn Austin’s Lenox Theater Group. She began directing theatre in 1983 and worked at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Indiana Rep, the Peterborough Players, WestBank Theater Bar and for NBC’s Another World. Working with her husband, Nick Doob, she produced a prize winning series of health-related documentaries for high school students. She has recently directed an original play, FINEPRINT, at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. She is currently producing a film based on Robert Coles’s Women of Crisis.

Nick Doob has been a director, cinematographer and editor on numerous award-winning films. He has shot four Oscar nominated films including From Mao to Mozart, which won the Oscar. He directed Down from the Mountain with D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which won an Emmy. He has shot a number of Pennebaker-Hegedus films, including Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1973), The War Room (1993), and directed with Chris Hegedus, Al Franken: God Spoke. In 2000 he won an Emmy as a producer on American High, the acclaimed verité TV series. For HBO he co-directed A Boy’s Life with Rory Kennedy and is currently directing and producing a film about Alzheimer’s Disease for HBO.

CARMEN & GEOFFREY
2006, 80 Minutes, Color, Digital Beta, 4:3, Stereo
A Film by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob
With: Carmen de Lavallade; Geoffrey Holder; Boscoe Holder; Leo Holder; Gus Solomons jr; Dudley Williams; Judith Jamison; Jennifer Dunning; Alvin Ailey; Josephine Baker
Photography: Nick Doob
Additional Photography: Leo Holder; Ron Gray
Sound: Linda Atkinson
Editing: Nick Doob

Quad Cinema
34 West 14th Street (east of Sixth Avenue)
Manhattan
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