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IDENTIFICATION AND BIO: A member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company from 1987 to 1993, Heidi Latsky is now a choreographer in her own right, presenting work in venues ranging from The Kitchen and the Joyce in New York City to the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. Her solo show Riot of Red/Right to Red was presented at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church; Espace Tangente in Montreal; the Alive! Arts Series in Rhode Island; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and the University of California — Santa Barbara. One section of that piece, Grace, concerns AIDS, and Latsky has said that she performs it specifically in honor of Arnie Zane. In this piece, Latsky wraps her nude body in red cloth as if she were a red AIDS ribbon. Kathleen Rio (see below), writing in the Potsdam, New York, Racquette, describes Grace thus: "Latsky stood at the back corner of the stage, partially draped in a shockingly red cloth. Her dance conveyed anger, frustration, and intensity. The audience was left breathless with the power of her motions."
KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
Gus Solomons, Jr., Maxine Sheeman and Michael Thomas have also performed Grace.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
There is no video documentation of Grace at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library.
PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
MOVEMENT NOTATION
PRODUCTION MATERIALS
ORAL HISTORY:
PERSONAL PAPERS
The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library maintains a clippings file for "Latsky, Heidi," call number MGZR.
IMMEDIATE NEEDS
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
"Initially Grace was part of a piece called Love Lesson. I had this very tall kind of gawky dancer, Joe Alter, from Soundance company, and I wanted him to be Cupid. But every time he put his head back, he looked like a little bird. So I made him a bird-like angel. Then I took the solo out of the group piece that it was in and made it just for him. And then I took it. This was after Arnie [Zane] died ... I wanted the red AIDS ribbon. When I first performed it, I always saw Arnie. The first performance I did was at the Remember Project, December 1, 1993 or 1994, without music. Ellen Jacobs sponsored me to do it as part of a fundraiser [Dancers Responding to AIDS Day Without Art Event for the Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church]. When I got the red fabric and made it for myself, it became about birth and death. It has so many connotations. I remember when Bill [T. Jones] came to see it, he said I was very iconographic, like Erte, or Martha Graham. With Gus [Solomons], it looks like he is a high priest. People get the bird-like and Christ-like images, the sense of rebirth more than death. Which is kind of what it was for me." Were you thinking of Arnie Zane when you made the piece? "No, not in the first incarnation. But when I took it on myself, and I took on the AIDS significance, yes. I think that the deaths of Arnie and Demian [Acquavella] affected me a lot. Especially Arnie. I think Arnie would really have liked Grace, it was very much in his style. And I remember thinking of him a lot when I first performed it. In certain positions, I felt that I was looking at him."
LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
Grace (c. 1993/94)—solo choreographed and performed by Heidi Latsky; part of a full-evening solo show Riot of Red/Right to Red.
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