Bella Lewitzky

Regarding Lewitzky's plan to sue the National Endowment for the Arts over grant policy: Perhaps taxpayers should sue the artistically deranged for attempting to force us down to their lowest common denominator--and expecting us to pay for it! ARTHUR L. GEMME San Pedro

We all know what happens when great composers, writers and artists die: Their work lives on. But what about groundbreaking choreographers — say, Martha Graham, José Limon, Merce Cunningham, Antony Tudor, Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine — those creators whose inspiration floats on a flashing moment, an instant image, a looming structure, perhaps never to be recaptured? A question of survival follows. Because, unlike music (written in scores), art (hanging on museum walls) and books (housed in libraries)

The tribute to the internationally known dancer and choreographer Bella Lewitzky was initially conceived as a living bouquet to the woman affectionately considered the doyenne of modern dance in Southern California. But with her death last year at age 88, the program Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts instead became an homage to her legacy, with four former company members each choreographing a new piece and the evening book-ended with two of her dances.

Melissa Barak was a great favorite of mine at the New York City Ballet, and I and many others miss her ("Naughty & Nice," by Elizabeth Khuri, Dec. 9). There was a cheerfulness about her as well as a beautiful line. The pieces she created for NYCB were very balletic, a real joy to watch. I am so happy she's doing well on the West Coast--and those photos, wonderful! Carl N. Steeg New York -- Ballet gets short shrift in Los Angeles, as elsewhere, I suppose, so it was great to read about Barak.

What do you give the woman who has everything? If the woman is Bella Lewitzky and you're a former member of the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, you give a dance concert in her honor. At 70, this dancer/choreographer/company director/educator already has almost everything else she ever wanted: a renowned, Los Angeles-based modern dance company that turned 20 this year, and the Dance Gallery, a $15.5-million dance theater-cum-institute that's Lewitzky's brainchild, broke ground on Sept. 14.

Southland modern dance matriarch Bella Lewitzky dominated the sixth annual Lester Horton Awards, announced Friday at the Japan American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo.

With a $30,000 start-up grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Bella Lewitzky's Dance Gallery in Los Angeles and the City Center Theatre in New York have launched a major dance presentation network embracing 10 states and six countries. The network is intended to widen touring opportunities for dance companies though block booking guarantees and the establishment of an international performing circuit.

Los Angeles-based modern dance pioneer Bella Lewitzky, who transformed herself from a powerhouse dancer into an indomitably independent, internationally known choreographer, master teacher and arts advocate, died Friday at an assisted-care facility in Pasadena. She was 88. The cause of death was complications from a massive stroke she suffered Tuesday, said her daughter, Nora Reynolds Daniel.

When it came time for UC Irvine to celebrate its silver anniversary, Betty Tessman, manager of Lively Arts and Lectures at the university, knew just who to ring up. "We wanted to have a dance company here," Tessman recalled during a recent phone interview, "and I thought: Would there be anybody I could pick who would be better than Bella Lewitzky?

The famed Bella Lewitzky Dance Company in Los Angeles is considering rejection of a $72,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in what would be the most serious episode yet in a continuing artist protest over anti-obscenity provisions in the endowment's 1990 grant guidelines.

The tribute to the internationally known dancer and choreographer Bella Lewitzky was initially conceived as a living bouquet to the woman affectionately considered the doyenne of modern dance in Southern California. But with her death last year at age 88, the program Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts instead became an homage to her legacy, with four former company members each choreographing a new piece and the evening book-ended with two of her dances.

Regrouping: The '70s rock band Queen is planning a tour next year with guitarist-vocalist Paul Rodgers replacing frontman Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991. Remembering: A memorial service open to the public for Los Angeles modern-dance innovator Bella Lewitzky will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Mark Taper Forum downtown. A veteran dancer and choreographer, Lewitzky died in July at 88.

Bella Lewitzky, the internationally known dancer and choreographer who died in Los Angeles on Friday at 88, acquired many of her ideas about movement, dance and independence while growing up on her father's chicken ranch in San Bernardino. In July 1998, she spoke with writer Barbara Isenberg about her early years for Isenberg's book, "State of the Arts: California Artists Talk About Their Work." (William Morrow).

Los Angeles-based modern dance pioneer Bella Lewitzky, who transformed herself from a powerhouse dancer into an indomitably independent, internationally known choreographer, master teacher and arts advocate, died Friday at an assisted-care facility in Pasadena. She was 88. The cause of death was complications from a massive stroke she suffered Tuesday, said her daughter, Nora Reynolds Daniel.

It's never surprising to find the restless creativity and focus on pure movement values that distinguished Bella Lewitzky's style of modern dance reflected in choreography by her former company members. She was a great teacher and her dancers learned their lessons well.

In what she acknowledges as the worst thing that ever happened to her during a 60-year career as dancer, choreographer, teacher and arts advocate, 83-year-old California dance matriarch Bella Lewitzky has lost her right leg to a long-term arterial disease. The amputation took place Oct. 27 at Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, where Lewitzky and her husband, Newell Taylor Reynolds, had moved following the disbanding of her internationally known Southland modern dance company in 1997.

In a sunny courtyard at Mills College, Bella Lewitzky sits on the ground doing stretching exercises, one leg straight in front of her and the other pulled up behind. The vertical stripes on her one-piece bathing suit heighten every spinal twist and turn--including the startling moment when Lewitzky bends forward over her outstretched leg, swivels her upper torso and touches a spot halfway between her knee and ankle with the back of her head. Yes, the back of her head . . .

When the last performance happens." * Bella Lewitzky, legendary Southern California choreographer, teacher and arts advocate, has been preparing to shut down her 30-year-old modern dance company for more than a year. She's 81, and not so much tired of dance as she is tired of running the Lewitzky Dance Company in these hard times for the arts. * Now the finale is really approaching--a gala farewell performance on May 17 at the Luckman Theatre at Cal State L.A.

The stage of the Luckman Theatre was awash in both flowers and tears as the curtain came down on the Lewitzky Dance Company's final performance, May 17, 1997. At 81, Bella Lewitzky, choreographer, teacher, arts activist and founder of a modern dance company that cut a broad artistic swath in Los Angeles for 31 years, was calling it quits.

Southland modern dance matriarch Bella Lewitzky dominated the sixth annual Lester Horton Awards, announced Friday at the Japan American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo.