Bella Lewitzky (1916-2004)
by Naima Prevots
Bella Lewitzky’s legacy is multi-faceted. Her
voice rang out for artistic freedom.
Consistent virtuoso performances
showcased a strong, lyrical body with
powerful kinesthetic connections to
audiences. Numerous contributions she
made to the teaching of dance, for diverse
levels and populations, remain visionary
today. Her choreography was visually
compelling and technically demanding, and
she toured and taught nationally and
internationally.
Lewitzky was born to Los Angeles RussianJewish immigrants in a Southern California
socialist utopian colony in the Mojave
Desert, Llano del Rio. During her school
years, the family lived in San Bernardino,
and after high school she moved to Los
Angeles. In 1934, a modern dance class with
Lester Horton, then teaching at Norma
Gould’s studio, was the beginning of their
long association. She became a star
performer in his company, and a major
collaborator. Lewitzky was instrumental in
encouraging Horton to organize his various
ideas on technique. She was also a
choreographic partner in three of Horton’s
important works: The Beloved (1948);
Warsaw Ghetto (1949); and Estilo de Tú
(1949).
Together with her husband Newell Taylor
Reynolds, Lewitzky helped Horton found
Dance Theatre in 1946. They embarked on
purchasing a building for school and
performance space, and it opened to the
public in 1948. By 1950, Horton and
Lewitzky had numerous differences about
teaching, choreographing, and managing
the theater and company. In 1951, she left
to create her own school, Dance Associates,
and began choreographing independently.
In 1954, she began teaching summer
programs in Idyllwild, California, a longterm involvement that culminated in 1958
with her appointment as Chairperson for
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Dance. Serving as administrator, teacher
and choreographer, she brought in
important guests, new to Southern
California. Among these were John Cage,
Merce Cunningham, John Butler, Carmen
de Lavallade, Eugene Loring Players, and
Daniel Nagrin.
Lewitzky formed a dance company in 1966,
at age fifty. The birth of her only daughter,
Nora, in 1955, and various teaching
responsibilities were determining factors in
her choice not to take on this commitment
earlier. In 1971, the company began
touring nationally and internationally, in
forty-three states and twenty countries. She
ended her own performance career in 1976,
retiring at the age of sixty-two, and closed
the company in 1997. Over many years of
touring and teaching, she created new
works each year, and these were
characterized by strong visual imagery,
technical virtuosity, group and spatial
dynamics. Overall, Lewitzky produced more
than fifty major concert works,
commissioned by national and international
arts groups and patrons.
Teaching, performing, choreographing: all
these activities intertwined and began to
bring Lewitzky significant attention in
Southern California’s arts and education
worlds. The California Institute of the Arts
was first proposed by Walt Disney in 1960,
and he was also prepared to provide
funding for a building and programs. It was
envisioned as an institution of higher
education where young painters, dancers,
and musicians would not be subject to
conventional college curricula and faculty.
They would be mentored by mature artists,
be immersed in their chosen art forms, but
also have numerous opportunities to
interact and work with students and faculty
in all areas of the arts. Lewitzky herself did
not have a college degree, and had been
skeptical about artists trained in institutions
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of higher education. When asked in 1969 to
form a dance department for this new
school, she agreed, and spent the next year
working on a curriculum and hiring faculty.
The school opened in temporary
headquarters in 1970, and moved into its
new (and current) building in 1971.
Lewitzky stayed as head of dance through
1972, and her influence and vision remain
strong to this day.
Lewitzky felt passionately about the
importance of the arts in the lives of all
children, and from 1970-1972 was active in
a program developed by the National
Endowment for the Arts. Interdisciplinary
Model Program in the Arts for Children and
Teachers (IMPACT) brought dance artists
into the schools to teach sessions, with the
goal of helping teachers bring dance into
the classroom. From 1974-1977, she served
as vice-chair of the National Endowment for
the Arts Advisory Panel.
In 1951, Lewitzky was anonymously accused
of being a Communist Party member. This
resulted in a subpoena to appear before
HUAC, The House Un-American Activities
Committee. HUAC had been created in
1938, when conservative congressmen
launched an initiative to fight against
Roosevelt’s reforms and the supposed
threat of communist infiltration. Lewitzky
was asked to name people who had been
associated with the Communist Party, but
she refused to “name names.” She noted
that the questions asked were
unconstitutional, and her response is often
quoted: “I am a dancer, not a singer.”
(Moore, p. 36)
Not long after, in 1954, she received an
invitation from UCLA to join the dance
faculty. One of the conditions was signing a
loyalty oath, then required by California
law. Lewitzky refused to do this, and never
worked at UCLA. When invited to teach at
Idyllwild, she was also asked to sign the
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loyalty oath. This time, the director of the
school ignored this requirement for
employment. It was not too long after these
events that the Supreme Court ruled that a
loyalty oath was unconstitutional.
In 1990, Lewitzky again took a strong stand
against restrictions for artists related to
freedom of expression. The National
Endowment for the Arts (NEA) had
instituted new clauses in their grant
approvals. Starting in 1989, prompted by an
exhibit by Robert Maplethorpe that
contained homoerotic material, there had
been an outcry among conservative
congressmen, who attempted to ensure
that any arts supported by the government
meet certain criteria. These would limit
possible themes and structures addressed
by artists, and constituted government
censorship. All artists were required to sign
newly legislated pledges not to create
obscenity, and Lewitzky refused to sign on
constitutional grounds. She filed a suit
against the NEA, and was supported by the
People for the American Way. This was a
bold and attention-getting move. She won,
and on January 9, 1991, Los Angeles District
Judge John G. Davies ruled in her favor,
eliminating the pledge.
Bella Lewitzky was the recipient of many
awards: Dance Magazine (1979); California
Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement
(1989); American Society of Journalists and
Authors Open Book Award (1990);
University of Judaism Burning Bush Award
(1991); National Dance Association Heritage
Award (1991); National Medal of Arts
(1996); Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance
Foundation Award (1999). In 2010, Indiana
University’s Contemporary Dance Program
received funding from the National
Endowment of the Arts (NEA) to reconstruct
Trio for Saki: Suite Satie. Nora Reynolds,
Lewitzky’s daughter, and a performer,
choreographer and teacher in her own
right, was in charge of the reconstruction,
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and the piece was seen for the first time
since Lewitzky’s death.
Bella Lewitzky’s legacy is kept alive through
the numerous people she trained and
taught. Her political activism and insistence
on freedom of expression remain inspiring.
She had hoped to found a permanent
theater and school in Los Angeles, and
worked on this for over fifteen years.
Although this goal did not materialize, she
helped to make modern dance in Los
Angeles a vibrant component of the arts, a
legacy that remains a motivating factor for
many artists, choreographers and teachers
in that city.
For full references to works cited in this
essay, see Selected Resources for Further
Research.
Naima Prevots, Professor Emerita,
American University, Washington, D.C., has
been a performer, choreographer, writer,
administrator, educator, and critic. She has
written three books, several monographs
and many articles. Honors include: National
Endowment for Humanities Fellowship; six
Fulbright Fellowships, and awards from
CORD, and other groups. She is currently
working on a book about American dance,
1953-2010.
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