A ‘hands-on’ choreographer, Helen Tamiris

Dance
When I was a dance student, it was perfectly normal to be utterly terrified of certain instructors. But they didn’t often man-handle you. Two generations ago, however, this was not the case. A student of Jack Cole described him banging her head on the ground as she stretched on the floor in second position. Banging ...

The wow factor: Paul Steffen Dancers in Italy, 1964 4

Dance
After a European tour circa 1950, Jack Cole dancer Paul Steffen — a member of Cole’s resident dance company at Columbia Pictures who performed in Cole’s Rita Hayworth pictures and more — settled in Italy for the rest of his life. There he made this work — a great youtube ‘find’ for this researcher. The ...