LEWITZKY ADDRESSES THE CRAFT OF THE ARTS

Bella Lewitzky’s speech started out rather routinely at Town Hall’s monthly arts committee luncheon at the Stock Exchange Club downtown Friday afternoon. Under the umbrella topic of “Why We Support the Arts,” Lewitzky, the mother of modern dance in Los Angeles, quoted Chamber of Commerce statistics. Amid the uniforms of gray flannel and deep navy, she cast an even sparer figure, in a jump suit of black silk.

She noted that in 1984 about $2.3 billion was generated by arts events in the greater Los Angeles area, that 17,000 people were employed in the arts and that about 22.9 million persons made up arts audiences--more, indeed, than attended sports events.

The Town Hall audience was the kind, after all, where the speaker felt compelled to ask a question about a recent Kennedy Center honoree in dance: “Is Merce Cunningham’s name familiar to you?”

In the last quarter of her speech, however, standing before film clips of models (some of them already out of date) for her new Dance Gallery at 4th and Grand streets, Lewitzky stepped out of the standard speaker’s mode and came alive. Her voice brightened. Her dark eyes danced.

She spoke of the need for “resilient floors” to save the ankles and knees of dancers. She attacked the “bigness” of Shrine Auditorium with its concrete stage, which, she said, wreaks havoc on dancers’ legs, and she ridiculed elevators. Elevators inhibit--movement as well as conversations, she observed.

“Ever want to quiet anyone? Put them in an elevator!”

At the Dance Gallery, which will be “a movement center” where people will meet and talk (and presumably take an extra breath on balconies), there will be only one elevator, to service those who actually need it. (Ground breaking will take place later this year, and it will take another year to build, Lewitzky said.)

A member of the California Arts Council and choreographer of the company that bears her name, Lewitzky noted early on that while “on the negative side” the state ranks 40th in the percentage of its overall budget going to the arts, California also has the largest percentage of artists in the nation--16% compared to New York’s 13%.

Meanwhile, she warned against taking any lessons from New York’s--more specifically Manhattan’s--treatment of its artists and dance studios, whereby artists come into an area, improve real estate values, and then are driven out by the high prices the new market creates. She said she was worried about the same thing happening to artists in the Traction Street area just east of downtown.

Lewitzky quoted French Impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh to support her premise that “the arts validate themselves.” It’s not what the arts do for economics that really counts, she said, but what they do for our souls.

“I have fallen in love with him again,” Lewitzky said. “He’s a genius with ideals who made life difficult for himself and everyone around him. He defines what the value of art is in the best possible way. He said, ‘As a suffering creature, I cannot be without something that is greater than I. . . .’ ”

Lewitzky envisions the Dance Gallery as a place where downtowners can gather for a 5:15 p.m. performance--freeing them, she said, smiling, from congested freeways and gridlock. The Gallery will feature a 1,000-seat theater, with “vertical and horizontal sight lines” that are “about 95% perfect.” Too often, she noted, audiences see dancers “only from the knees up.” Later, she said, her stage would have a basket-weave set made of pine.

She foresees a full 52-week season with dance troupes coming to Los Angeles from all over the world. The city, she noted, got a taste of the kind of work that can be seen here during the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival.

“We don’t need another building,” she scoffed, noting that theaters are only defined by what goes on within. Ironically, the Lewitzky troupe will perform at the Gallery only for two of those weeks, Lewitzky said. “We are a touring company,” added Lewitzky, whose company recently returned from Japan.

Asked whether she thinks ticket prices are too high, she immediately replied, “Oh, absolutely. I’m so glad you asked. . . .”

Lewitzky said it is a mistake for arts organizations to think they can meet overhead costs through audience sales. Indeed, she has another idea. Because the Dance Gallery will be adjacent to California Plaza, she said, she is thinking of asking plaza merchants who are likely to benefit from her audiences to contribute to the Gallery’s budget.

For good measure, Lewitzky tossed in some politics. She noted that magnet schools, which she said were designed as a way “to avoid integration,” have actually benefited education in the arts. She also said she likes to present work that defines where we are, whether it’s about weaponry that can wipe us all out, or pollution.

Looking out at her business audience, the choreographer declared: “I am compelled to speak out on the human situation.”