Beverly Schmidt Blossom (August 28, 1926 – November 1, 2014) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She was an original member and soloist with the

Alwin Nikolais Alwin Nikolais (November 25, 1910 – May 8, 1993) was an American choreographer, dancer, composer, musician, teacher. He had created the Nikolais Dance Theatre, and was best known for his self-designed innovative costume, lighting and production ...

Dance Theater, a

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

choreographer for Illinois Dance Theatre, Blossom & Co. and others, and a professor at the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...

Training

Born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to Theodore and Florence Schmidt, she held a bachelor's degree in

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

from

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The unive ...

and a master's degree in dance from Sarah Lawrence College where

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordin ...

was one of her dance composition students.Faculty profile: Beverly Blossom
, dance.uiuc.edu; accessed November 8, 2014.

New York career

She was a principal dancer of the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre from 1953–63, dancing alongside

Murray Louis Murray Louis (November 4, 1926 – February 1, 2016) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Life Louis was known as one of the most influential American modern dancers and choreographers. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up in Manh ...

and Phyllis Lamhut.Profile
, elitedance.com; accessed November 3, 2014. She produced concerts of her own choreography in New York in the 1960s, participating in the development of the Filmstage theatre of actor/poet

Roberts Blossom Roberts Scott Blossom (March 25, 1924July 8, 2011) was an American poet and character actor of theatre, film, and television. He is best known for his roles as Old Man Marley in ''Home Alone'' (1990) and as Ezra Cobb in the horror film '' Derange ...

, her husband from 1966-70.Beverly Blossom official website
, beverlyblossom.com; accessed November 3, 2014.

University of Illinois

Blossom was professor of dance at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

from 1967–90, and was a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

until her death. She choreographed and performed more than 100 works and received numerous grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

New York State Council for the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996) ...

, Illinois Arts Council, and private foundations.

Solo career

She renewed her career as a performer, presenting her solo works at the 1988

Jacob's Pillow Jacob's Pillow is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The organization is known for a Summer dance festival. The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives a ...

, Massachusetts "Splash" Festival, and at the Joyce Theatre 1989 showcase "Womanworks".

''New York Times'' reviews

Jennifer Dunning of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called Blossom "a rare performer", adding "a zany, hilarious goof of a clown, Miss Blossom is also a tragic figure of great dignity, bringing an audience to tears and laughter as her dances ravel and unravel, simultaneously, before one's eyes" (1985). In 1994

Anna Kisselgoff Anna Kisselgoff (born 12 January 1938) is a dance critic and cultural news reporter for ''The New York Times''. She began at the ''Times'' as a dance critic and cultural news reporter in 1968, and became its Chief Dance Critic in 1977, a role she h ...

described Blossom's tribute to her mentor Nikolais after his death: "Here, she is the tattered clown with a suitcase, gazing at a shattered Styrofoam mannekin. Reassembling the figure, she swept it into a soaring curve. but this was only a remembrance of poetic time past, a strong tribute to the death of an artist."Kisselgoff, Anna
"Dance Review; Blossom Tribute To Departed colleague, Arts"
''New York Times'', July 2, 1994; accessed April 4, 2013.

Documentary of Roberts Blossom

Blossom appeared in a documentary about her former husband, actor

in 2000, titled
''Full Blossom: The Life and Times of Actor/Poet Roberts Blossom''
The couple had one son, Michael.
nytimes.com, accessed November 4, 2014.

Retirement

After her retirement, she choreographed for her own company (Blossom & Co. Inc.), in addition to guest performing and teaching. In December 2010, she appeared in the Nikolais Centennial Alumni Concerts at Hunter College, speaking and performing at both presentations."The Nikolais Centennial Alumni Concerts"
''Bearnstow Journal''; accessed November 3, 2014. Blossom was a mentor to Henning Rübsam, who first studied with her at the Nikolais studio and then performed her work starting in 1994. Other interpreters of Blossom's dances have included Betsy Fisher, Cynthia Pipkin-Doyle and Christine Reisner.

Awards

*1993: New York Dance and Performance Award (

Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...

) for sustained achievement."Choreographer, dancer," ''Illinois Alumnus'' 27(3): 50 (spring 2015). *2009: Martha Hill Award for Lifetime Achievement, November 30, 2009 at The Cathedral in New York City. Fellow Nikolais dancer

was Master of Ceremonies and Jennifer Dunning presented the award.

Death

Beverly Blossom died in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on November 1, 2014, from cancer, aged 88. Her sole immediate survivor is her son, Michael Blossom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blossom, Beverly Schmidt 1926 births 2014 deaths Artists from Chicago Modern dancers American choreographers Roosevelt University alumni Sarah Lawrence College alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Bessie Award winners Deaths from cancer in Illinois