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 Dance Theater, a

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert dance, concert or theatrical dance which includes 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 ...

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

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

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Early life and training

Born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on August 28, 1926, to Theodore and Florence Schmidt, she held a bachelor's degree in

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

from

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

and a master's degree in dance from

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

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, recordi ...

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 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, 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 (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

from 1967–90, and was a

professor emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

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 feder ...

, New York State Council for the Arts, 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 studio, dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. The facility itself was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2003. History The site of Jacob's Pi ...

, 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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 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 Roberts Blossom 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 Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, 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) 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 Murray Louis was Master of Ceremonies and Jennifer Dunning presented the award.

Death

Beverly Blossom died in

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 American 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