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John Lindquist: As of Today
Exhibitions

John Lindquist: As of Today

A 2024 exhibition in Blake’s Barn presented dozens of newly-printed images by John Lindquist for the first time, encompassing more than four decades of Pillow artists.


By Norton Owen
Photo: Cherylynn Tsushima

INTRODUCTION

Although he served as the Pillow’s staff photographer for more than four decades, John Lindquist (1890-1980) has now been absent for longer than he was onsite. And while some of his images have been regularly featured in exhibitions here—where a rotating display continues in the Special Collections Room—Jacob’s Pillow hasn’t mounted a full Lindquist show since 1997. 

One compelling reason to take another look at Lindquist’s Pillow images is that their institutional home, the Harvard Theatre Collection at Houghton Library, has been comprehensively digitizing their Lindquist holdings and making them available online. This makes it possible to view literally thousands of Pillow photos which have never before been exhibited or even printed, and the images included here have been culled from more than 15,000 possibilities—all in glorious color. 

Lindquist regularly presented slide shows of his Kodachrome images but almost never exhibited color prints. And so, the photos included in this exhibition are truly being seen anew. Encompassing a wide range of genres with names both famous and unfamiliar, these dancers are organized into four categories: male and female solos, duets, and groups. The resulting juxtapositions are not unlike the shared programs on which the performers appeared here, reminding us that the past continues to hold many surprises. 

All photos are by John Lindquist, © Harvard Theatre Collection.

MALE SOLOS

NICHOLAS MAGALLANES, 1945
JOE PILATES, 1943
ALONZO RIVERA, 1962
TEOKILA A’ASA in Samoan Slap Dance, 1960
TOM TWO ARROWS in Iroquois Indian Dance, 1949
RONNE AUL, 1951
BHASKAR, 1960
EYRICK DARBY in Hurricane, 1954
BARTON MUMAW in Ted Shawn's The Dome, 1940
ARTHUR MAHONEY in Parnassus, 1947
NIKITA TALIN in "Ribbon Dance" from The Red Poppy, 1948
CHARLES TATE, 1941
CHARLES WEIDMAN in A House Divided, 1947
GEORGE ZORITCH in Vaslav Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun, 1958
PETER DiFALCO, 1952
RAM GOPAL in Garuda, 1954
GEOFFREY HOLDER, 1956
ANTON DOLIN, 1941
GERALD ARPINO in Robert Joffrey's Scaramouche, 1954
LEON DANIELIAN in Todd Bolender's Musical Chairs, 1945
JEAN-LÉON DESTINÉ, 1949
ROBERT JOFFREY in Umpateedle, 1953

FEMALE SOLOS

TAIK WON CHO, 1951
RUTH ST. DENIS in Waltz & Liebestraum, 1942
TANAQUIL LeCLERCQ in George Balanchine's Le Baiser de la Fée, 1951
THALIA MARA, ca. 1942
JOSEFINA GARCIA, 1951
IRIS MABRY in Dilemma, 1947
NOBLE PAULICKPULLE, 1949
MARGARET SEVERN in Mask Group, 1944
MIA SLAVENSKA in Portrait of a Ballerina, 1952
DEVI WANI in Garuda (Balinese Dance), 1949
SAHOMI TACHIBANA, 1953
MIRIAM WINSLOW, 1942
XENIA ZARINA, 1955
PAULINE KONER in Pas de Deux, 1945
LA MERI, ca. 1945
CARMEN de LAVALLADE in Alvin Ailey's The Twelve Gates, 1964
TEI KO ITO, 1948
IVA KITCHELL, 1948

DUETS

THE ERNESTIS, 1954
NATHALIE KRASSOVSKA & GRANT MOURADOFF in Michel Fokine’s Le Spectre de la Rose, 1943
RICHARD STUART & VANYA, 1952
INDRANI & SUKANYA in Tillana, 1979
FREDDY ALBECK & LOTTE GOSLAR in For Humans Only, 1954
PATRICIA McBRIDE & EDWARD VILLELLA in George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, 1968
ROSELLA HIGHTOWER & GEORGE SKIBINE in Don Quixote Pas de Deux, 1946
EMILY FRANKEL & MARK RYDER in Todd Bolender’s At the Still Point, 1955
RUTH PAGE & BENTLEY STONE, 1948
CAROLA GOYA & MATTEO, 1953
ALEXANDRA DANILOVA & FREDERIC FRANKLIN in Leonide Massine’s Gaité Parisienne, 1948
PINA BAUSCH & JEAN CÉBRON, 1968
NANCY REDI & ALVIN AILEY in Blues Suite, 1959
CHRISTA MERTINS & VINCENT WARREN in Anton Dolin’s The Swan of Tuonela, 1965
TATIANA SEMENOVA & PARTNER, 1944

GROUPS

MURRAY LOUIS & COMPANY in Junk Dances, 1965
DONALD McKAYLE AND COMPANY in Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder, 1961
TALLEY BEATTY AND COMPANY in Rural Dances of Cuba, 1948
MARGARET MORRIS & CELTIC BALLET OF SCOTLAND, 1954
MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY in Septet, 1955
BETTY JONES, JOSÉ LIMÓN, MIRIAM PANDOR in Concerto Grosso, 1948
MARA AND HER DANCERS, 1950
PEARL PRIMUS, 1950
SOLOISTS OF THE ROYAL DANISH BALLET in August Bournonville's Konservatoriet, 1955
AMERICAN YOUTH BALLET in Campus Capers, 1948
TED SHAWN in The Dreams of Jacob, 1949
NATIONAL DANCERS OF CEYLON, 1958

PILLOWTALK

PillowTalk with Stephan Driscoll and Norton Owen, moderated by Maura Keefe
View Archival Record

Published DECEMber 2024

Norton Owen is a curator, writer, and archivist with over 50 years of professional experience in dance.Read Bio

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