Homer Avila by Robin Hoffman.
By Paul Ben-Itzak
Copyright 2004, 2018 Paul Ben-Itzak
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Homer Avila died Sunday night, at the age of 49, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, where he’d checked himself in Saturday. “He was dancing until Friday, checked himself into the hospital Saturday night, and was gone by twilight Sunday,” reports Pentacle’s Ivan Sygoda. “The cancer that cost him his hip and leg had metastasized and reached his lungs.”
The journalist trades in the effects of sympathy. By his reporting and then the selection and arranging of details, he can write an obituary to pull your heart out. I’ve been doing this for more than 25 years, since a high school English teacher I didn’t know that well passed away unexpectedly, and I set about interviewing his colleagues. Did I know what they told me was moving? Yes. Was I moved by their words? Yes, but it was probably a detached empathy. This one is hard.
Homer danced with Momix and with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, where he would meet his partner Edisa Weeks. I first caught them in an evening of performance in a church basement on the Upper East Side, where their duet “Dubious Faith” was the highlight. Homer played a priest, with the taller Edisa lifting and twirling him; Homer walked on upended wine glasses. More miracles were to come.
To receive the complete article, first published on April 27, 2004 and featuring excerpts from DI reviews of Homer’s performances around the world and comments from Homer and colleagues, subscribers please contact publisher Paul Ben-Itzak at paulbenitzak@gmail.com. Not a subscriber? This week you can subscribe to the DI for one year at the discounted rate of $20, 33 percent off the regular rate. Just designate your PayPal payment in that amount to paulbenitzak@gmail.com, or write us at that address to learn how to pay by check. Subscribers receive full access to the DI/AV Archive of 2,000 exclusive reviews by 150 leading critics of performances and art on five continents from 1998 through 2015.
