---- Dance Magazine, April 1978, p. 4.
Picture from the Pennington Dance Group "Skins, Screen and Trees"
At this point, I think I have established the fact that Lewitzky is a brilliant artist as well as a remarkable human being. But is there still a way for us to become a “Lewitzky” dancer now that Bella is gone?
Like she said at the last company performance in 1997, “the arts are under threat more than ever before… What legacy I have left here will die unless you become responsible for keeping it alive.” Lewitzky authorized three of her former company members to reconstruct/restage dances from her repertory: Nora Reynolds Daniel, Walter Kennedy, and John Pennington.
John Pennington dancing Kreutzberg's "Dances Before God."
Upon talking with Nora during her residency at IU to rehearse Suite Satie and expressing my passion for the Lewitzky technique, she suggested that I look into a person named John Pennington in LA who teaches a lineage of the Lewitzky technique. As mentioned above, John Pennington is one of the three people authorized to restage the dances from Lewitzky’s repertory. Johan Pennington is currently the artistic director of the Pennington Dance Group, a Los Angeles base modern dance company. He spent 14 years in the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company as a performer and teacher and is also currently the co-director of the Lewitzky Dance Gallery.
"Dancers for Life" choreographed by John Pennington, performed by Li Chun Chang
The John Pennington Dance Group is a non-profit organization that promotes dance not only through performances but also education and outreach programs. John often teaches Contemporary/Modern dance classes for $10 per class at the ARC Pasadena and work-study scholarships for his class series are also available. I actually hope to enroll in one of his class series this summer to really experience the Lewitzky/Pennington technique.
John Pennington talking about LA Contemporary Dance Comapny
In the above video the comment "Dance is very visceral. The body is something we all share, and to be able to use it to communicate has driven that passion."
ReplyDeleteThis really affects me personally because when I dance I feel like I'm sharing my body with the audience, and when I watch dance I am amazed at the thought that I too have a body that is capable of what is occurring on stage.
Another quote was "Modern Dance is home grown (American)" and Pennington says he wants his company to be about the "Community" and "on the front line of society"
This takes the idea of dance being relevant to every human with a body and makes modern in particular even more relevant to the American population. By relating dance close to home like this helps bring in the audience and is what might help Penninton keep his company in the spotlight.