Lester Horton, contrary to popular belief, was a white man creating and codifying his own modern dance technique in Los Angeles. His most well known student, Alvin Ailey, was responsible for preserving his technique and company and bringing it to New York that many believe that Lester Horton was also a African American man. Horton was a pioneer of the groundbreaking trend of modern dance and he brilliantly created a dance form that fused ballet with Native American and Japanese dances. Lester Horton was an January 23, 1906 in Indianapolis, Indiana and he died while still working and dancing on November 2, 1953. His interest in Native Americans preceded his interest in dance due to exposure to their culture from nearby archaeological sites and their history from exhibits in his town’s children’s museum. At the…show more content… His whole class but especially his warmups focused on engaging the abdominals and back to support the body in the strenuous positions found in the flat back, lateral, and coccyx exercises since these were muscles that were the most efficient to use to prevent injury and minimize strain. He also incorporated the long lines of ballet that lengthen the muscles he was having his dancers build which created the lean, strong dancers still seen in Ailey’s company and school. The parallel leg swings, deep lunges, extensions, and elongated turn positions were reminiscent of ballet but were changed and designed to include native american dance’s grounded movement that portrayed dancers as strong humans not just as ethereal sylphs usually found in ballets. With the training Horton received in ballet and Native American dance and his creative innovation, Lester Horton formed a strong, beautiful dance technique that is vital for dancers to understand and study to preserve dance history as well as have a strong basis and inspiration for their own creative
