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From the Horse’s Mouth Celebrates Phyllis Lamhut
From the Horse’s Mouth Celebrates Phyllis Lamhut by Joel Benjamin
From the Horse’s Mouth, founded in 1998 and still produced by Tina Croll and Jamie Cunningham, honored the brilliant modern dance doyenne, Phyllis Lamhut at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts in the East Village. Ms. Lamhut whose career began with the companies of Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis, long ago branched out into a hugely successful teaching and choreographing career. Although she would hate to be defined as such, she is a living link between the founding artists of modern dance—Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey and, most especially, Hanya Holm—and today’s anything goes world of dance which needs her clear, analytic eye. She finds the heart of every dancer and every dance and has influenced several generations of dance artists. Though this chapter of From the Horse’s Mouth followed the usual loose format of all its previous incarnations, it was beautifully focused on its honoree. Dancers—young and old, modern and ballet—still wandered about like spirits performing ad lib bits of choreograpy while one person sat stage center telling personal reminiscences. Diagonals of Fellini-esque, fantastical dance bits dreamily punctuated the show. Still, it is what the speakers revealed about Ms. Lamhut that was the heart of the program. Dance critic Deborah Jowitt and teacher Linda Tarnay spoke amusingly of working with Ms. Lamhut on a piece for “older dancers” at St. Mark’s Church in the 90s, revealing how unsure all involved were initially and how Ms. Lamhut managed to pull it off. Tarnay was particularly touching when she admitted to buying a padded bra to compete with the other women in that work.
Her Nikolais/Louis colleague, Gladys Bailin, mused on their 60+-year friendship in a delightfully written fairytale. Her NYU colleague, James Martin somehow found something to rhyme with “kvetchy” as he commented on Ms. L’s critical nature. Ruth Graut related how she served as Phyllis Lamhut’s “dance mama” back in 1947, metamorphosing into her teacher, lighting designer, stage manager, etc. Sally Gross unspooled part of her film “The Pleasure of Stillness” showing Ms. L touring the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, philosophizing about the similarities between dance and sculpture. Representing the slightly younger end of the age spectrum were: Pilar Castro Kiltz who studied with Ms. L at Princeton; Rob O’Neill, a self-described over-active child whose personal revelation from his studies with Ms. L was the concept of stillness; Jessica Nicoll whose duet with her partner Barry was given the Phyllis treatment with plenty of very funny “Phyllisims,” her wry, sometimes harsh, comments; and Paz Tanjuaquio admiringly spoke of being reminded of having to have her “motor base constantly engaged” in choreography. Todd Whitley credited Ms. L with his artistic journey which led to his founding the prestigious annual Hudson Valley Dance Festival. Mr. Whitley’s Greene County neighbor, Kay Stamer wore a complicated, slightly comical golden headdress which she presented to Ms. L in tribute to their work in upstate New York. Robert Small, as Ms. Lamhut’s husband, was able to sound a romantic note as he described his first impressions and subsequent involvement. Ivan Sygoda, her longtime professional manager and friend also brought up Ms. L’s loquaciousness. Composer Andy Tierstein made light of Ms. Lamhut’s demands for last-minute changes in scores. Of course, there were a number of other wonderful vignettes, sadly too many to mention here, all expressing the same ideas, extolling Ms. Lamhut for her devotion. Behind the performers was a constant stream of slides of Ms. Lamhut giving just a hint of her charisma and attention to detail. This was a particularly successful gala, honoring a particularly wonderful lady. From the Horse’s Mouth Celebrates
Phyllis Lamhut – November 8, 2014 
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