Gus Solomons Jr. (August 27, 1938 – August 11, 2023) was an American dancer, choreographer, journalist, and educator. He was a leading figure in

postmodern dance Postmodern dance is a 20th century concert dance movement that came into popularity in the early 1960s. While the term ''postmodern'' took on a different meaning when used to describe dance, the dance form did take inspiration from the ideologie ...

and experimental dance.

Early life

Gus Martinez Solomons Jr. was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. His father, Gustave Martinez Solomons, an electrical engineer and Cambridge civic leader,Gustave M. Solomons, 1928. MIT Black History. https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/archive/gustave-m-solomons-1928#:~:text=After%20Solomons'%20death%20in%201987,MIT%20professor%20of%20clinical%20nutrition. graduated from MIT in 1928.Gus Solomons in "Paradigm Shift," 2011. MIT Black History. https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/archive/gus-solomons-paradigm-shift-2011 His mother, Olivia Mae Stead Solomons, was a teacher.Kourlas, Gia. Gus Solomons Jr., 84, Dies; a Rare Black Presence in Experimental Dance. New York Times. Aug. 20, 2023; Updated Aug. 22, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/arts/dance/gus-solomons-jr-dead.html His brother, Noel W. Solomon, was an associate professor of Clinical Nutrition at MIT (1977-1984). After his father's death in 1987, the building at 456 Broadway in Cambridge was named in his honor: Gustave M Solomons Transportation Career Center. Gus Solomons Jr. started dancing at the age of 4, taking tap, acrobatics, and ballet classes at a local studio.Perron, Wendy. IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Gus Solomons jr, 1938–2023. Dance Magazine. August 25, 2023. https://www.dancemagazine.com/gus-solomons-jr-2/#gsc.tab=0 His first dance teacher was E. Virginia Williams, founder of the Boston Ballet Company. He attended college at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1961,Wright, Sarah H. Alumnus choreographer Solomons leads students in dance. MIT News Office. March 8, 2001. https://news.mit.edu/2001/solomons-0308 and “moonlighted” taking dance classes with Jan Veen, founder of the

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded o ...

's dance program.

Career

Solomons moved o New York City in August 1961 to appear in “Kicks & Co.,” a Broadway-bound show with choreography by

Donald McKayle Donald McKayle (July 6, 1930 – April 6, 2018) was an American modern dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and writer best known for creating socially conscious concert works during the 1950s and '60s that focus on expressing the human con ...

and Walter Nicks. The show closed after four previews in Chicago. In 1962, Solomons was situated in a studio at 51 West 19th Street in New York, located in the midst of the downtown dance scene. Solomons received a scholarship to study dance at the

Martha Graham School Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is located in New York City and is the headquarters to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Martha Graham Dance Company, which is the oldest continually performing contemporary dance c ...

and took ballet classes at the

Joffrey Ballet School The Joffrey Ballet is an American dance company and training institution in Chicago, Illinois. The Joffrey regularly performs classical and contemporary ballets during its annual performance season at the Civic Opera House, including its annual ...

. He danced with several New York companies, including

Pearl Lang Pearl Lang (May 29, 1921 – February 24, 2009) was an American dancer, choreographer and teacher renowned as an interpreter and propagator of the choreography style of Martha Graham, and also for her own longtime dance company, the Pearl Lang ...

Paul Sanasardo Paul Sanasardo (born 15 September 1928) is an American dancer, choreographer and dance teacher of Italian descent. Life and career Sanasardo was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Sicilian family from Palermo, Italy. He attended the School of the A ...

Joyce Trisler Joyce Trisler (1934–1979) was an American modem dancer and choreographer. Biography Trisler was born in 1934 in Los Angeles, California. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles. Trisler started her career with the Lester Hort ...

, and

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...

.Long, Richard A. "Gus Solomons Jr." in ''The Black Tradition in American Dance'', New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1989, p. 141. He was also part of Studio 9, a studio-sharing cooperative with Elizabeth Keen, Phoebe Neville, Cliff Keuter, Elina Mooney, Kenneth King, and others. Encouraged by his friend and "guardian angel" David Vaughan, Solomons studied new approaches to dance composition with Robert Dunn, who was the husband of

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

dancer Judith Dunn. From 1965 to 1968, Solomons danced with the

and Company. He was the first Black dancer to join the Cunningham company, and was the first dancer in roles of significant Cunningham works: How to Pass; Kick, Fall and Run; RainForest; Place; Walkaround Time; and Scramble.

Gus Solomons Company/Dance

In 1972, Solomons founded The Solomons Company/Dance, whose repertoire consisted of detailed and analytical compositions that were conceived as "melted architecture", drawing from his experience as an architecture student at MIT. He undertook a clinical, postmodern approach to dance-making that linked a fascination with puzzles and architectural design to the process of "kinetic autobiography". During an interview with ''Open Door'', the MIT newspaper, Solomons compared movement design to building design in principle, with the exception that dance was not fixed in time. Solomons' choreographies were created to suit the dancers, not vice versa, because he was concerned with how the dancers felt while executing the movement. Company members included: Douglas Nielsen (1973–75) and choreographer

Donald Byrd Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter, composer and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few h ...

(1976-1978). In 1996, Solomons danced in Byrd's “The Harlem Nutcracker,” where he played the father character, a deference to being a father figure in Byrd's life.Byrd, Donald. From the Vault: Gus Solomons, Jr. Spectrum Dance Theater. August 21, 2023. https://spectrumdance.org/company/gus-solomons-jr/ in 1982, Solomons presented his work at “Parallels,” a dance event for Black choreographers, along with Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Blondell Cummings, Harry Whittaker Sheppard, and others, at Danspace Project, New York.

Educator

From 1994 to 2013, Solomons was a professor of dance at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2005, he became a Full Arts Professor. In 2002, he was an MLK Visiting Scholar, hosted by Music and Theater Arts, at MIT. Solomons also had teaching assignments at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the ...

, and

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

Journalist

Beginning in 1980, Solomons devoted some of his time to dance criticism, and his reviews have appeared in ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

, Ballet News, Attitude,

Dance Magazine ''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' is currently part of Dance Media, led by longtime arts publisher Joanna Harp as president, and has mu ...

'', ''

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscription ...

'', Gay City News, Danceinsider.com, among others.Gus Solomons, Jr.: journalist, choreographer and dancer. Office of Public Affairs and Communications. Yale. April 6, 2010. https://communications.yale.edu/poynter/gus-solomons-jr

PARADIGM

In 1996, Solomons, along with Carmen de Lavallade and Dudley Williams, started the dance collective PARADIGM, a dance company for mature dancers over the age of 50. whose goal was to "promote and celebrate the talents of mature artists on stage". PARADIGM tours and commissions new dances by a variety of choreographers.

Death

Gus Solomons Jr. died of heart failure on August 11, 2023, at the age of 84. He is survived by Robert Gerber, a friend and health proxy.

Repertoire

Solomons created more than 150 dances for his company, including: Kinesia #5 (1967); and A Thin Frost (1996). In 2009, he restaged his Statement of Nameless Roots (1976) for the Spectrum Theater in Seattle, Washington, and on the program the work was titled, “Icon-Clan – Three Generations of American Iconoclasts work share the Stage: MERCE CUNNINGHAM, GUS SOLOMONS JR, and DONALD BYRD.”

Television and Film

In 1968, Solomons collaborated with writer Mary Feldhaus-Weber and composer John Morris to create “City/Motion/Space/Game” produced by Rick Hauser for

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS List of PBS member stations, member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Affiliated stations and facilities WGBH-TV is the Flagship (broadcasting), ...

in Boston. In 2001, Solomons was featured in “Free to Dance,” a three-part series presented on PBS's Dance in America.

Legacy

Solomons maintained a treasure of dance materials, and his archives are housed at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Personal life

Solomons lived in New York, and bicycled everywhere. His brother, Noel W. Solomons, a nutrition scientist, died in 2024.A Tribute to a Nutrition Titan: Remembering Dr. Noel W. Solomons. Micronutrient Forum. March 26, 2024. https://micronutrientforum.org/remembering-dr-noel-solomons/

Awards and honors

* Dance Research Fellow. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. 2014. * Dean's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, University of Missouri – St. Louis. 2009. * Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, American Dance Festival. 2004. * Robert A. Muh Award for noteworthy contributions in the humanities, arts or social sciences, MIT. 2001. * Sustained Achievement in Choreography, The Bessie Awards. 2000.

Articles

* Solomons jr, Gus. This Is What It Felt Like to Be a Black Dancer Downtown in the 1960s. Dance Magazine. February 3, 2022.Solomons jr, Gus. This Is What It Felt Like to Be a Black Dancer Downtown in the 1960s. Dance Magazine. February 3, 2022.https://www.dancemagazine.com/gus-solomons-jr/#gsc.tab=0 * Solomons jr, Gus. "Teach-Learn Connection: Technique: Move your Feet! Merce Cunningham Technique" ''Dance Magazine'' 81:11. November 2007. * Solomons jr, Gus. "Merce Among the Children" ''Dance Magazine'' 77:4. April 2003. * Solomons jr, Gus. "Good guys" ''The Village Voice'' 45:43. 31 October 2000. * Solomons jr, Gus. "Dance:King Rex" ''The Village Voice'' 43:20. 19 May 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomons, Gus Jr. 1938 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American dancers 21st-century American dancers American choreographers American modern dancers American male dancers Male actors from Boston Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni MIT African-American alumni African-American male dancers African-American choreographers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people