Rachel Rosenthal
| Rachel Rosenthal | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 9, 1926 Paris, France |
| Died | May 10, 2015 (aged 88) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Nationality | Russian-American |
| Known for | Performance Art |
| Notable work | Pangean Dreams |
| Spouse(s) | King Moody (m. 1960; div. 1979) |
| Awards | J. Paul Getty Fellowship, Vesta Award, Obie Award |
| Website | www |
Rachel Rosenthal (November 9, 1926 – May 10, 2015) was an interdisciplinary artist, a teacher and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles, California. She was best known for her full-length performance art pieces which offered unique combinations of theatre, dance, creative slides and live music. She toured her pieces, with The Rachel Rosenthal Company, to numerous venues both within the United States and abroad. Theatres and festivals she visited include: the Dance Theatre Workshop and Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center in New York City, the Kaaitheater in Brussels, The Internationals Summer Theater Festival in Hamburg, The Performance Space in Sydney and the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques, Théâtre Centaur, Montréal. One of her key ambitions was to help heal the earth through art.
Rosenthal was born on November 9, 1926 in Paris, France, into an assimilated Russian Jewish family. Her father, Léonard Rosenthal, was a well-known merchant of Oriental pearls and precious stones. Her mother was Mara Jacoubovitch Rosenthal. She described her childhood home as one filled with the works of Monet and Chagall; purchases brought home from her father's travels to Italy. Rosenthal's knack for performing developed at an early age; she was only three when she started performing and often entertained up to 150 guests at family events. She was only six when she started learning ballet under the guidance of the acclaimed Preobrajenska.
During World War II, her family escaped France, moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, via a short stay in Portugal. This journey inspired the creation of her piece, My Brazil. In April 1941, her family left Brazil to settle in New York, where Rosenthal would later graduate from the High School of Music and Art. She studied acting at the Jean-Louis Barrault School of Theatre and with Herbert Berghoff. At some stage she was an apprentice of director Erwin Piscator and directed some off-Broadway productions. Additionally, she was an assistant designer to Heinz Condella at the New York City Opera and danced in Merce Cunningham's company. It is the integration of these various skills and talents that have enabled her to produce complex and multi-layered performance art pieces.
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