Geoffrey Holder Celebrated In New York
He might be most famous for his turn as Baron Samedi in “Live and Let Die,” but Geoffrey Holder and his wife Carmen de Lavallade were black pioneers in Broadway and ballet who pushed boundaries throughout their careers. Holder’s life and catalogue will be commemorated twice this summer in New York. On Thursday, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts debuts the retrospective “The Genius of Geoffrey Holder.” It pairs video of his ballets, which fused the traditional dances of the Caribbean with classical forms, with several of his paintings – elegant and socially charged oil tableaus, often of black Madonnas and cryptic forms obscured by tropical foliage. On August 1st, the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival will host a tribute afternoon that includes a screening of the 2009 documentary “Carmen & Geoffrey,” which chronicled Holder’s nearly 60-year marriage to the celebrated dancer Carmen de Lavallade, his proclaimed muse until his death.
