FEEDBACK

I am writing to thank you for Debra Levine’s wonderful article on Theodore Kosloff [“Cutting a Fouette Figure,” April 5].

In today’s fast-paced, flavor-of-the-minute lust, Hollywood forgets its past and the pioneers who took the film industry from a very primitive art form to the global shaping phenomenon it became. Levine honors Kosloff in his contributions to the dance history of California as well as pointing out the connections to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Cecil B. DeMille, Agnes de Mille, the Hollywood Bowl and the privileged children of Hollywood’s leaders and many future dance figures who took classes at his schools.

Art does not evolve in a vacuum. Kosloff’s canny ability to take his historic background and craft into commercial profit is an example that all budding artists might study. The Hollywood Dance Tree was remarkable -- and never given its proper recognition. Without Theodore Kosloff, Ernest Belcher, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, Lester Horton, Eugene Loring and other innovators, dance on film would not be where it is today.

Larry Billman

Brea