Trisler, Joyce, 1934-1979

Trisler, Joyce, American modern dancer and choreographer; born in 1934 in Los Angeles, California; died October 13, 1979 in New York City. Trisler studied with Lester Horton and performed with his Dance Theatre as an adolescent, creating roles in his Seven Scenes with Ballabilli, Prado de Pena, and Dedication in Our Times (all 1952).

After Horton's death, Trisler moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School. There, she studied with Antony Tudor and created roles in works by her teachers Donald McKayle ( Out of the Chrysalis, 1958), Anna Sokolow ( Session '58), and Doris Humphrey, for whom she danced in The Rock and the Spring (1955), Descent into the Dream (1956), and Dawn in New York (1956).

From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, Trisler worked as a freelance performer in the established and ad hoc companies of John Wilson and Alvin Ailey, and in concerts at the 92nd Street YMHA, dancing for James Truitte (in Bagatelle, 1960, and Variegations, 1958), and in her own works. She also performed with the Valerie Bettis group in the 1965 concerts of the American Dance Theatre, a cooperative venture among traditional modern dancers and choreographers. One of the foremost experts in the teachings and choreography of Lester Horton, she supervised the reconstruction of his The Beloved for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre.

Although a prolific choreographer, Trisler was occasionally better known for her revivals of the works of Horton and, after 1977, of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Her group, Danscompany, frequently performed the Denishawn repertory for entire seasons in New York and on tour without featuring her own works.

Trisler also choreographed extensively for opera companies, among them the New York City, San Francisco, and Boston Operas, and for theatrical productions. She was especially well known for her work on the New York Shakespeare Festival productions in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park each summer from 1967 to 1971. Her Broadway shows, unfortunately, were uniformly unsuccessful.

Works Choreographed: CONCERT WORKS: Playthings of the Wind (1956); Journey (1958); The Pearl (1958); Place of Panic (1958); Bewitched (1959); Theater Piece (1959); Bergamesca (1960); Bronx Zoo Cantata (1969); Dance for Percussion (1960); Nite Life (1960); Primera Cancion (1960); Brandenberg Concerto (1961); Eccosaises (1961); Ballroom (1964); Dance for Six (1964); Rite of Spring (1974); Soliliquy of a Bhiksuni (1974); Four Temperaments (1975); Little Red Riding Hood (1975); Four Against the Gods (1976); Fantasies and Fugues (1978); By Dawn's Early Light (1979); Concerto in E (1979).

OPERA: King Arthur (1968); Beatrix Cenci (1973); Death in Venice (1975); The Good Soldier Schweik (1976).

THEATER WORKS AND INCIDENTAL DANCES: Everyman Today (1958); Put It in Writing (1963); Titus Andronicus (1967); Henry IV (1968); Romeo and Juliet (1968); Peer Gynt (1969); La Strada (1969); Look to the Lillies (1970); Timon of Athens (1971); Great Scott! (1971); Ambassador (1972).

Source: Biographical Dictionary of Dance Barbara Naomi Cohen-Stratyner New York, Schirmer Books, 1982.

From the guide to the Joyce Trisler papers, 1950-1979, (The New York Public Library. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.)