Homer Avila (1956-2004) first came to Jacob’s Pillow as a student in 1977, and he participated in three other school programs over the next 17 years while he was simultaneously amassing performance credits with Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Ralph Lemon, and Bill T. Jones. It was in Jones’s Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin that he first connected with partner Edisa Weeks (who had also been a Pillow student), and they made their Inside/Out debut in the appearance seen here. Avila continued performing even after losing a leg to cancer in 2001, with new works created especially for him by Alonzo King, Victoria Marks, and others. In the dances that he jointly choreographed and performed with Weeks, there was a seamless intermingling of ideas, a practice mirrored in this dance’s title which playfully alternates the letters from their first names. During a period when Avila had grown disillusioned with dance, he took a photography class with Tom Caravaglia, reviving his interest and resulting in the photo seen at the end of this clip.
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