July 14
Born Today:
David Gordon
This postmodern choreographer and performer's best known piece is Chair (1974) - a duet performed by himself and his wife, dancer Valda Setterfield (1934-). After a bad performance experience, during which the audience booed and walked out - across the stage space while he was dancing - David Gordon (1936-2022) stopped making dances for five years. Then he joined The Grand Union performance collective (1970-1976) and continued creating witty and insightful dance and theatre work for a variety of organizations.
Also Born Today: Author Parmenia Migel (1908-1989) wrote several books on ballet, including The Ballerinas (1972) and founded the Stravinsky-Diaghilev Foundation. From 1929-1958, choreographer LeRoy Prinz (1895-1983) devised dances for dozens of movie musicals, including Show Boat (1936), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and South Pacific (1958).