Carmen and Geoffrey

Friday, April 23rd, 7:30pm

***National Dance Week Screening!***

Carmen and Geoffrey

Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob, 2006, 79 Minutes

This film is about the work of American artists, Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder who stepped forward in the 1950's to play a vital part in the newly energized world of modern dance.  It is also about a forty-seven year long marriage and creative partnership that has sustained their accomplishments. Born in New Orleans, Carmen won a scholarship at age 16 to study in Los Angeles with the pioneering choreographer, Lester Horton.  She brought her high school classmate, Alvin Ailey to his first dance class.  Noticed by Herbert Ross, she appeared he invited her and Ailey to dance in the Broadway production of Truman Capote’s House of Flowers.  Another member of that cast was Geoffrey Holder.  They were married soon after. Geoffrey Holder came from Trinidad to debut in House of Flowers, which he also co-choreographed with Herbert Ross.  Later he directed and designed the costumes for The Wiz winning two Tonys in the process.  Geoffrey’s world-class talent as a painter has been recognized with a Guggenheim fellowship and he is a prize-winning author and photographer. The film provides young people with role models of lives boldly lived and above all will offer a paradigm for survival and accomplishment in one of the toughest professions to which anyone can aspire. - First Run Features