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HOMER AVILA
About the Artist
Dancer Homer Avila is Co-Artistic Director of Avila/Weeks Dance. A native of New Orleans, Avila has family roots in Central America. He has received scholarships from the Harkness House of Ballet Arts, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Jacob’s Pillow, and the American Dance Festival. He has performed with Twyla Tharp, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Mark Morris, and Ralph Lemon, among others. His teaching credentials include Spelman College, Oberlin College, Brooklyn Friends School, and MOMIX. Avila is currently a Guest Artist at Wesleyan University and is teaching a course in partnering at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. One Sunday in late February of 2001, Avila was riding high on a positive review in the Boston Globe. By that Thursday he was free- falling with a diagnosis of chondro sarcoma, a very rare form of cancer. On April 12th, his right leg and hip were amputated. Asked if he ever seriously entertained the idea of leaving dance, his immediate answer is “Never.” Instead, he says the crisis has given him a chance to “apply the lessons I’ve learned in art: what you do with what you are given.” Avila has been too proactive to be either angry or depressed. Alonzo King, with whom Avila has taken workshops, describes Avila as having “a fanatically positive attitude, a largeness of spirit. He showed us that limitations are only in the mind. He was turning on one leg, jumping on one leg, using his elbow, using that body to find new ways to speak in dance.” Musing on his recovery, Avila says, “Being a strong-willed person takes having had a lot of dark times. At this moment of utmost clarity you either dwell on what’s befallen you or you fully embrace what you have left.”
Past Performances
November 19, 2003
A Preview of Opera House Renovations with excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, featuring soprano Harolyn Blackwell, and Douglas Webster, and students and faculty of the Catholic University Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Murry Sidlin. Also: Dancer Homer Avila and excerpts from the Deaf West production of Big River, with the Mark Taper Forum and Roundabout Theater. Presented in partnership with VSA arts, an international non-profit organization that is creating a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts.
August 10, 2002
Homer Avila has performed with Twyla Tharp, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Mark Morris. Challenging challenges, he presents work created in the year since losing his leg to cancer, including the premiere of a duet with Andrea Flores.
