Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:12:07.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

José Limón's The Moor's Pavane: An Interview with Lucas Hoving

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Naomi Mindlin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

José Limón's The Moor's Pavane, subtitled “Variations on the theme of Othello,” premiered on August 17, 1949, at the American Dance Festival in New London, Connecticut. The original cast consisted of José Limón as The Moor, Lucas Hoving as His Friend, Pauline Koner as His Friend's Wife, and Betty Jones as The Moor's Wife. With costumes by Pauline Lawrence and music arranged by Simon Sadoff (conductor and pianist for the José Limón Dance Company) from Henry Purcell's Abdelazar, The Gordian Knot Untied, and The Pavanne and Chaconne for Strings, the work was quickly recognized as a major modern dance classic. Now more than forty years old, The Moor's Pavane continues in the repertory of the Limón Dance Company, as well as in that of many ballet companies throughout the world.

John Martin, reviewing the premiere in The New York Times, declared that Limón had “definitely made a place for himself among the best of them” with his latest work. And Louis Horst wrote in The New London, Conn., Evening Day, “With a quartet of dancers… José Limón has, within the strict limitations he has set himself, produced a gripping and absorbing composition.” Horst also praised the dancers, noting that ”[t]he performance by the quartet was on a very high level, especially the stunning portrayal of the Iago role by Lucas Hoving, which was one of unforgettable malevolent intensity”.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , Spring 1992 , pp. 13 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ADDITIONAL SOURCES

“American Dance Festival Gala.” Cassette 2: Interview with José Limón; introduction by Lucas Hoving, Betty Jones, and Pauline Koner to performance of The Moor's Pavane. 1978. 3/4″ U-matic videotape, NYPL.Google Scholar
“Appendix C: Sources of Othello.” In The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice, by Shakespeare, William, edited by Lawrence Ross, J.. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. 1974, pp. 262–275.Google Scholar
“Appendix: The Source of the Plot.” In A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: Othello, (1886), edited by Furness, Horace Howard. New York: American Scholar Publications, Inc. 1965, pp. 372–389.Google Scholar
Charlip, Remy. “Growing Up in Public: The Making of an Autobiographical Dance for Lucas Hoving/conceived and directed by Remy Charlip.” Contact Quarterly, Vol. 13 No. 3 (Spring/Summer 1988): inside front cover, pp. 29–44.Google Scholar
Conway, Peter. Interview with Pauline Koner. Transcript of interview recorded March and June, 1975. NYPL.Google Scholar
Dance On: Lucas Hoving: Billie Mahoney interviews Lucas Hoving. 27 July 1986. 3/4″ U-matic videotape, NYPL.Google Scholar
“Dancers and the Dance.” Interview with Carla Maxwell and excerpt from The Moor's Pavane. 1984. 1/2″ VHS videotape, NYPL.Google Scholar
Ferrer, José. “The Role of Iago in Shakespeare's Othello.” The American Theatre, Vol. 1, No. 1 (August 1945): pp.7–9.Google Scholar
Gruen, John. Interview with Ruth Currier, broadcast 29 March 1976 by radio station WNCN-FM, New York on its series, “The Sound of Dance.” Audio tape recording, NYPL.Google Scholar
Horosko, Marian. Interview with Lucas Hoving, recorded June 1965 for broadcast on radio station WNYC's series, “World of Dance.” 1965. Audio tape recording, NYPL.Google Scholar
Hoving, Lucas. “Notes from a Contemporary Romantic.” In Dancers Notes, edited by Siegel, Marcia. Dance Perspectives, Vol. 38 (Summer 1969): pp. 6–11.Google Scholar
Koner, Pauline. “Intrinsic Dance.” In The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief, edited by Cohen, Selma Jeanne. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1969, pp. 77–89.Google Scholar
Koner, Pauline. Solitary Song. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Koner, Pauline. “The Truth about The Moor's Pavane.” Ballet Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1980): pp.387–396.Google Scholar
Limón, José. “An American Accent.” In The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief, edited by Cohen, Selma Jeanne. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1969, pp. 16–27.Google Scholar
Limón, José. Daily Calendars/Diaries 1942-1959. Box #663, José Limón Papers, NYPL.Google Scholar
Limón, José. The Moor's Pavane. 1950, 1951, 1953, 1957. Motion picture, NYPL.Google Scholar
Limón, José. The Moor's Pavane. 195?, 1974, 1982. 3/4″ U-matic videotape, NYPL.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Othello, The Moor of Venice. Revised edition edited by Bentley, Gerald Eades. The Pelican Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Books, 1970.Google Scholar
“Spoleto ᾽80.” Interview with Clay Taliaferro and performance of The Moor's Pavane. 1980. 1/2″ Beta videotape, NYPL.Google Scholar
Stahl, Norma Gangel. “Conversation with Lucas Hoving.” Dance Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 8 (August 1955): pp. 44-45, 54.Google Scholar