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Rare photographs, letters and ephemera chronicle the career of West Coast dance icon Bella Lewitzky (1916-2004).
When dance legend Bella Lewitzky passed away last July at the age of 88, the arts lost one of its most respected and dedicated champions.
“The rich legacy of Bella Lewitzky lives on at USC with the contribution of the archives of her work to our library,” said Margo Apostolos, director of the USC School of Theatre’s dance program. “Her collection will keep her spirit of modern dance alive for generations of young dancers.”
Though Lewitzky was a renowned dancer, choreographer and master teacher, she may best be remembered as an arts advocate who challenged the United States government on more than one occasion.
She campaigned passionately for government support of the arts, yet was undaunted by its attempts to limit artistic freedom.
In 1951, she was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee to answer questions about possible communist activities in the arts.
“I’m a dancer, not a singer,” she famously replied.
Years later, when the National Endowment for the Arts implemented a mandatory “loyalty oath” on a grant acceptance form stipulating that any recipient would not produce art that might be considered “obscene” or “homoerotic,” Lewitzky crossed out the clause in her $72,000 grant and filed a lawsuit against NEA chairman John E. Frohnmayer.
In January 1991, a district court held that the oath improperly chilled artistic expression and was declared unconstitutional.
“For me, this is a very personal day of rejoicing,” Lewitzky said after the ruling.
Lewitzky, who struggled to make Los Angeles an important dance center, held teaching residencies across the country and abroad, including stints at USC, the Idyllwild School of the Arts and the California Institute for the Arts, where she served as the first dean of dance.
From 1966 to 1997, she directed the Los Angeles-based Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, which traveled to the East Coast for the first time in 1971, appearing at the American Dance Festival in New London, Conn., and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Lewitzky received five honorary doctorates, a Guggenheim fellowship (1977), the Dance Magazine Award (1978), the first California Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement (1989), the National Medal of Arts (1997) and the coveted Capezio Award (1999).
This exhibition of archival material from USC's Special Collections is supplemented by rare performance footage of the Lewitzky Dance Company.
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