Valerie Bettis
Valerie Elizabeth Bettis ( born December 20, 1919 in Houston, Texas, † September 26, 1982 in New York City ) was an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance.
Life
Valerie Bettis was born in 1919 in Houston, the daughter of Royal Holt Bettis and Valerie Elizabeth McCarthy. Her father died when she was 13 years old. Her mother later married Hugh Prather. With ten years Bettis took her first ballet lessons from the dancer Rowena Smith. During her high school years she took part in theater and musical performances. After visiting the University of Texas for a year, Bettis moved to New York City. From 1937 she studied modern dance with Hanya Holm and remained until 1940 in her ensemble. After that Bettis was preparing for her debut as a solo dancer, which finally took place in New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall in November 1941.
In March 1943 Bettis received much recognition for her solo number selbstchoreografierte The Desperate Heart on a poem by John Malcolm Brinnin. On March 11, 1947 her choreography was premiered at Virginia sampler of the Ballets Russes, which is why Bettis is considered the first modern dance choreographer who worked with an established ballet company. Their dances for As I Lay Dying (1948 ) have been described by the New York Times as " stunning, dramatically impressive and imaginative ." As a literary work it was doing William Faulkner's novel As I lay dying ( As I Lay Dying ) from the year 1930.
Then she was also employed on Broadway. One of her most famous performances on Broadway in 1948 as they had Tiger Lily in Inside USA, a Musical Revue by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, for which she received the Theatre World Award. In 1952 she choreographed for the Slavenska - Franklin Ballet ballet version of Tennessee Williams' stage play A Streetcar Named Desire (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947) with music by Alex North.
Briefly, she worked in Hollywood. For the two films Affair in Trinidad ( Affair in Trinidad, 1952) and Salome (1953 ), she worked twice with screen icon Rita Hayworth. Bettis, who also took a supporting role in Affair in Trinidad, choreographed for Hayworth, the two dance numbers Trinidad Lady and I've Been Kissed Before. However, the film critic of that time felt the dances as too avant-garde and tasteless. So Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times: " The dances, showing off [ Hayworth ] in this film, they can look vulgar and grotesque. " Yet both women for Hayworth Dance of the Seven Veils in Salome worked together again.
From 1943 to 1955 Bettis was married to the Brazilian pianist and composer Bernardo Segall. Later she married Arthur Schmidt, who died in 1969. Valerie Bettis died in 1982 after a short illness at the age of 62 years at Beth Israel Hospital in New York.