In her important, must-watch documentary ‘Bella’, filmmaker Bridget Murnane proves that you can’t keep a good woman down.
In the early days of the movement we know today as American Modern Dance (which is actually a silly way to make of all the various and varied disciplines one classification) the USA were very much a country divided. On the East Coast, the disciplines flourished, while the West Coast was still considered a wasteland when it came to culture. Even today, ask anyone in the arts about living in LA or working on the West Coast, and their reply will include “cultural vacuum” at some point. Go ahead, try it.
In fact, the Humphrey-Weidman Company, the Graham Company and school, as well as the momentous Katherine Dunham Company (then named Ballet Nègre) were all based east of Chicago, starting in the 1930’s — with no sign of any movement coming from the Western part of the US. Or so the dance critics, all of them based in NYC, would have had you believe.
But during that time, one star of the American dance movement was Bella Lewitzky, a revolutionary voice of modern dance who grew out of the Lester Horton Dance Group, the first American inter-racial dance company. Born of socialist parents, who were members of the socialist Llano Del Rio Colony, in 1916 and raised on a chicken farm in Highland, the later LA-based Lewitzky because the star and primary developer of the Horton technique. Among her students were Alvin Ailey and Carmen De Lavallade, who went on to famously form the Alvin Ailey company in New York.
Why the West coast is so important in this story is the Horton technique is based on moves from Native American dance. And in the lithe, petite yet fiercely powerful Lewitzky, Horton found the body upon which he would build his technique, this uniquely West Coast Modern Dance. All capital letters please!
In her documentary, simply titled Bella, producer and director Bridget Murnane examines both the dancer, and the woman behind the moves, resulting in a work of art all around. And a learning tool for women who aim to be fearless, and be listened to — which sometimes requires a simple move, not raising one’s voice.
Bella in Trio, photo by Lyn Smith
Murnane’s film has received 17 awards and to date, has been screened in over 50 festivals. This coming weekend, it will begin theatrical distribution in the US, at the Laemmle Royal, Los Angeles, screening from November 10th to the 16th. Bella will also be streamed and broadcast on PBS SoCal in March of 2024.
During Lewitzky’s time with Horton, dance pieces included themes of social injustice, anti-fascism, American and Mexican history — and in the 1950’s Bella herself even landed in front of the Un-American Activities Committee, where she pleaded the 5th. About that time in her life, where she saw her world turned upside down by the inquiry, she said: “It really is frightening when you can realize that your safety and right to life can be removed from you and that your enemy is never seen, is hidden, and that your accusers cannot be confronted because you don’t know who they are.” Those are words we should remember today, as they hold the truth to so much of our common evils in the world. Unseen enemies are always the most dangerous.
Bella Lewitzky died on July 16, 2004. In her 88 short years she revolutionized dance, but also how we look at culture. Recently, I spotted this quote on LinkedIn and wondered if I was reading it wrong… I may still be yet those words seem so incredibly sad. That we think of something meant to heighten our emotions and strengthen our common bond as the same as the anxiety and jitters we get before having to return to work, on a Sunday evening is beyond words. Pardon the pun.
Created out of a mixture of archival footage and modern takes, by cinematographer Morgan Sandler, the film sees Walter Kennedy, a principal dancer with the Lewitzky Dance Company for nearly twenty years, as Associate Producer. Bella is produced and directed by Bridget Murnane, written by Alex Bushe and Pat Verducci and edited by Bushe.
It is an important work of the Seventh Art because it uses dance to show us the way to humanity. In that it clearly points out that apart from all sharing the same blood flowing through our veins, we also have movement and rhythm in common. While not at the same speed or in the same way, it still unifies us as citizens of the world, where our politicians may try to divide us, to conquer. But Bella proves that you can’t keep a good woman down.
I’ll leave you with a quote, one we have seen often and probably quote even more often, yet one that is always good to remember:
“Sing like no one is listening.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching,
and live like it’s heaven on earth.”
Amen.
All photos courtesy of The Lewitzky Dance Company archive, USC, used with permission.