Carmen and Geoffrey

Carmen and Geoffrey

First Run Features

“You don’t know me, but give me an answer later on. A month later, she said yes.” As soon as you hear the booming, Trinidad-accented voice, you place it: the “Uncola-nut” 7-Up 1970s commercials! I have to admit that, prior to watching this documentary, I didn’t know, as most people don’t, that the voice belonged to Geoffrey Holder: dancer, choreographer, singer, composer, librettist, costume designer, scenic designer, writer, photographer, painter and Tony-winning theatre director. The recipient of the marriage proposal was the agelessly gorgeous and elegant Carmen de Lavallade, a living icon of the dance world. Carmen & Geoffrey offers a charming but somewhat rambling and sketchy celebration of de Lavallade’s and Holder’s amazing respective and frequently overlapping careers as well as their 47-year, miraculously intact, enviable lifelong romance. Separately, both artists created remarkable work, as can be seen in the wealth of eye-popping, rarely seen footage, including their incredible dance work in support of the legendary Josephine Baker.

They share early obstacles to their career choices: As de Lavallade states, girls from nice Los Angeles families like hers didn’t go into show business. De Lavallade was among the first African-American women to become a major force in modern dance. In her partnership and ground-breaking performances with Alvin Ailey and in her pioneering solo work, she created a remarkable stage persona with her inventive body language and sultry personality. By the time she met Holder, she was in high demand and being flown coast to coast as a soloist.

Holder battled dyslexia, a colonialist school system, and the stifling culture of machismo as a dancer in Port-au-Prince. Location footage in Trinidad of Holder hanging out with his older, highly influential artist brother, Boscoe, provides the most personally revealing parts of the film. Holder tells how all he wanted to do was follow in Boscoe’s footsteps and Boscoe, humorously, of how Holder “harassed his tail” and got him into trouble.

The duo captures the special time in the 1950s when they arrived in a New York full of possibilities, as de Lavallade declares, “If you have desire for it, it doesn’t matter what the world’s doing, you have to do it.” With a lifetime’s worth of wisdom and experiences, they casually spill great lines throughout. De Lavallade: “They are not afraid of who they are. That’s a true star.” Holder: “I walk through doors. If a place didn’t want me, there was something wrong with the place. Not with me.”

The cozy approach and leisurely pace of the documentary is appropriate to both the relaxed informality of these two very approachable and incredibly nice people, for all their accomplishments, as well as their wide-ranging experiences. The ardent Holder recalls seeing de Lavallade for the first time as if it were today, “with a face you could die for!” In footage from a Q&A, he gives ardent advice to the male audience members: “Men, when you marry a lady try to keep her as lovely as when you first saw her…Carmen de Lavallade is not Mrs. Holder, Mrs. Holder is my mother.”

Oddly, the film skips over significant patches of achievement. Holder’s work as a film actor is not touched upon and de Lavallade’s work as a professor at Yale University, where she has taught since 1970, is ignored. But, the film shows the couple at contemporary activities. De Lavallade still performs at 71 with the Paradigm Dance Company, which she founded with two other living legends, Gus Solomon Jr. and Dudley Williams, while Holder, walking with a cane, focuses more on his painting and giving talks about his career. “They never did anything they didn’t want to do. That’s an amazing thing,” remarks Jennifer Dunning, a friend and collaborator.

These are charismatic, warm, funny, wise and unpretentious artists who clearly love each other and take joy in spreading the magic of visual and performing arts to new generations. From the very first frame, the viewer gets caught up in their effervescent personalities and their indefatigable spirit. By the documentary’s end, one is certain they need each other to be who they are. Mostly because of their awesome physical beauty and grace coupled with dazzling personalities, there’s not a dull moment here, and if you perhaps wish the filmmakers had focused more on certain aspects of their lives and less on others, it’s far better to be left wanting more. I feel lucky to have made their cinematic acquaintance.

by Teri Carson