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| Bella Lewitzky |
 Bella
Lewitzky is the founder and Artistic Director of the Lewitzky Dance Company
and a legendary figure in American dance. She has been widely acclaimed
for her choreography and her contribution to dance as an educator and mentor
and as a champion of freedom of expression. She graduated from San Bernardino
High School (1933) where she was active in the Thespian Club and the Scholarship
Society. Lewitzky studied one year at Valley College (1933-34) and then
moved to Los Angeles where she was able to give herself to dance. Her early
training was with Lester Horton with whom she later co- founded Dance Theater
in Los Angeles. She organized the School of Dance at California Institute
of Arts (1969) and was the Dean of that program until 1974. Lewitzky founded
the Lewitzky Dance Company in 1966 and was the Artistic Director of the
much acclaimed company until its farewell gala in May of 1997. She has received
many awards including honorary doctorates from California Institute of Arts
(1981), Occidental College (1984), Otis Parsons College (1989), and the
Juilliard School (1993). She has been the recipient of Guggenheim and Andrew
W. Mellon grants. She has had a long and fruitful relationship with the
Idyllwild School of Music and Arts. Bella has this to say about her work:
"How wonderful to work at something you love! How remarkable to be given
the opportunity to utilize one's whole being, one's physical knowledge,
intellectual capacity, imagination and creativity in a single pursuit."
The 1996-1997 season was the Lewitzky Dance Company's last. After over 30
years of running a dance company, it is time, Lewitzky noted, to seek new
mountains to climb: "It's a quest to see what's out there that might be
different, where choice-making returns to me. At 80, there's an entitlement,
don't you think?" As an exclamation point to her distinguished career in
dance, Lewitzky received the National Medal of Arts for her contributions
to the arts in the United States at a ceremony in Washington D.C. in January
of 1997. She was selected for the honor by President Clinton. Lewitzky was
inducted into the Valley College Alumni Hall of Fame in 1994. |
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