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Letter from Stark Young to Minnie Nielson Butler, Accession #8084-c, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
This collection was purchased on 1995 September 20.
John Neilson Butler (1920 Sep 29 - ), the son of Minnie (Neilson) Butler, a railroad sales agent, and Kent Butler, a railroad official, was born in [Memphis, Tennessee]. He began his choreographic career with dances for Broadway and off-Broadway shows, among them Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul (1947). He staged dances for the American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera Company, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York Opera Television. He trained at the Martha Graham School and the American School of Ballet; and, was a member of Martha Graham's Company, 1942-1955. He danced in musicals and on television. He was also founder, director, and choreographer for the John Butler Dance Theatre, from 1953.
Biographical information contained here on John Neilson Butler was located in The Dance Encyclopedia [GV1585.C5 1967]; A Dictionary of Ballet [GV1585.W5 1974]; The International Dictionary of Ballet [GV1585.I57 1993]; and, Current Biography Yearbook 1955 [CT120.C8]. See these and other sources for more information.
This collection contains a letter from Stark Young, New York, New York, to "Miss Minnie" [(Neilson) Butler], 1950 March 14, concerning her son, John [Neilson Butler], the American dancer, choreographer, and ballet director. Young praises Butler's stage movement for Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul , and describes his work as "so sincere and so expert that one goes on thinking of it afterwards" and that he saw in his early works "at once this broad, simple treatment and unity of impression." He mentions his work with Martha Graham and Gian Carlo Menotti (1911- ), and hopes that he can work with Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Paul Green (1894-1981) in the "tremendous pageant in June, in Washington, to celebrate the founding of the national capital."