About Us

Babette Coffey-Fisch

Alvin Ailey knew that I loved to film and photograph dance.  Alvin would let me sit smack in the middle of the Grand Tier at City Center in New York City and take photos of the company during rehearsals. Alvin knew that Joyce Trisler had trained Ana Forsythe and me before we were even teenagers at The Garden State Ballet in Newark, New Jersey.  She brought us to the very first performances of Alvin’s Company. It was love. 

Joyce Trisler was our very first modern dance teacher. 
Joyce Trisler had studied with Lester Horton and Alvin himself was a Horton disciple. Much of his choreography is based on the Horton technique.
 
Alvin and I talked about how important it was to document the Horton technique.  He told me that I should see that it was done.  It was when I met Jeanne Suggs, an amazing person who had ballet training and video background, that I felt this is the person who would know how to accomplish the documentation of the technique.  I was right.
 
Ana Forsythe had been writing the book The Lester Horton Technique, with Cheryl Bell and Marjorie Perces.  I felt that there must also be a visual component to make sure that the technique was remembered accurately.  Ana, Marjorie, and Jeanne felt that if I could raise the funds and keep the project going that they would throw their hats into the ring.

I visited Bella Lewitzky in California; it was on her body that the Horton technique was set. I received her blessings and support.  I set about raising the funds to film.

We worked very hard and continued because we were all committed to seeing the project completed. It took us years because we all could only work part time on the project.  We all had jobs and yet we managed to do what had to be done to keep the project alive. We finally completed the last video of the technique documentation in 2003.

It has been a labor of love.  Now we have the classes that complement the technique and show how a Horton class can be taught.

As Christopher Wheeldon stated in the Advanced Video, “If a dancer has been trained in Horton I know they can do anything”.

We are very proud of our Horton videos and plan now to continue our efforts and document other techniques that are important to our American dance legacy. 

Jeanne Suggs

I came to New York from Tennessee because I was a dancer and also had a degree in TV/Film Production.  I wanted to combine my two fields of interest and create dance video pieces.  My first business, Video Performance Studio, was designed for dancers so they could rehearse and choreograph with the use of video for feedback and record. 

I started recording dance companies in performance including the Joyce Trisler Danscompany – my first experience with the Horton Technique and with several dancers who are part of the Horton legacy.  A mutual friend introduced me to Babs Coffey because she had an idea for a TV show about dance and they thought we would be a perfect fit.  We’ve been working together since.

We produced the pilot for a dance news/magazine show called Dance Spotlight with interviews with such different greats as Crazy Legs of hiphop fame and Merrill Ashley of the New York City Ballet.  Our next venture was the documentation of the Lester Horton technique.  We started our first attempt with Keith McDaniels, a close friend of Babs from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.  We raised a little money from the distributor Kultur and produced the first tape in the Horton series “The Warm-Up”.   Over the next 10 (?) years, which is what it took to find the time and money we produced the Intermediate and Advanced Horton technique tapes.  And now we are releasing the class tapes which help teachers organize the technique information into coherent classes.  We are looking forward to our next dance venture.

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