\n<\/p>\n
Christian Holder, a standout dancer for the Joffrey Ballet who made his name in the 1960s and early \u201970s in pointedly topical works like \u201cAstarte,\u201d<\/a> a groundbreaking psychedelic ballet, and \u201cThe Green Table,\u201d a haunting 1930s antiwar ballet made newly relevant by the Vietnam War, died on Feb. 18 at his home in London. He was 75.<\/p>\n His death was confirmed by his friend and frequent collaborator, the choreographer Margo Sappington, who said the cause had yet to be determined.<\/p>\n Born in Trinidad and reared in Britain, Mr. Holder came from a prominent artistic family. His father,<\/em> Boscoe Holder, was a celebrated dancer, choreographer, painter, designer and musician. His uncle, Geoffrey Holder<\/a>, was known in a variety of fields, including dance, painting and, in particular, acting: With his rich basso profundo voice, he was memorable as a Voodoo villain<\/a> in the James Bond film \u201cLive and Let Die\u201d<\/a> (1973), as well as in a series of television<\/a> spots for 7Up.<\/p>\n Mr. Holder was every bit as varied in his own artistic pursuits. In addition to dancing, he was a choreographer; a costume designer for Tina Turner and other stars, as well as for several ballets; a cabaret singer; a painter; a theater director; and a playwright.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Still, his legacy was built on his 13-year run with the Joffrey \u2014 the mold-shattering company founded by Robert Joffrey<\/a> and Gerald Arpino<\/a> \u2014 which began in 1966, when he was 17. A lithe 6 feet 4 inches tall, he was \u201cmajestic and pantherlike\u201d onstage, Ms. Sappington said in an interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Virginia Johnson, a former principal dancer and artistic director at Dance Theater of Harlem, called him a study in contrasts, capable of \u201cdancing with power or softness, whatever the role required.\u201d Still, she added, \u201chis physical presence \u2014 height, muscularity \u2014 made him terrifying\u201d in one of his most famous roles: as Death in \u201cThe Green Table,\u201d a pacifist 1932 ballet by the German dancer and choreographer Kurt Jooss.<\/p>\n Mr. Holder began performing<\/a> that linchpin role in 1969. Appearing in \u201cskull-like whiteface,\u201d<\/a> as Anna Kisselgoff observed in a review in The New York Times, his character claimed a string of characters caught in the tangle of war.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Holder\u2019s debut here was impressive, with a proper feel for the changes in attitude required of his role,\u201d Ms. Kisselgoff wrote. She had quibbles, including that his performance was \u201calmost too nimble at the start,\u201d but she added that these were mere details in an \u201cindubitably strong performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n His time with the Joffrey coincided with the company\u2019s golden era, Mr. Holder wrote in a 2006 retrospective in Dance Magazine \u2014 particularly his early years, when sweeping social changes were influencing the company\u2019s sensibility and direction.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen were beginning to re-evaluate their possibilities as citizens,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere were civil rights marches and boycotts, protests against mind-numbing atrocities committed in response to Black people seeking the right to vote and a higher education.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Holder also found himself on the cultural vanguard in 1970 when he took over the male role in \u201cAstarte,\u201d a multimedia erotic duet that he performed with Nancy Robinson. The ballet, with a rock score b y the band Crome Syrcus, had been featured on the cover<\/a> of Time magazine in March 1968.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Astarte\u2019 was immensely taxing, with slow motion, sculptural partnering going against the intense music, followed by an aggressively sexual duet with lifts and contortions of every kind for the woman,\u201d he wrote in Dance Magazine. Following performances, the dancers \u201cwould stagger out of the theater, completely drained, aching, yet exhilarated.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Holder encountered the same sense of hippie-era abandon in \u201cTrinity\u201d<\/a> (1970), a ballet by Mr. Arpino that blended rock music and the spirit of youthful rebellion<\/a> and featured no story but ample loose-limbed improvisation. Mr. Holder was caught up in the spirit of the times, both onstage and off. During the production, he recalled in a 2021 video interview<\/a>, \u201cI was wandering around backstage in robes and bells on my toes and incense in the dressing room and that whole thing. That\u2019s why that character is sort of like a whirling dervish.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Arthur Christian Holder was born on June 18, 1949, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. His mother, Sheila (Clarke) Holder, was, like his father, a professional dancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He got an early glimpse of the spotlight at age 3, when he appeared with his father\u2019s dance company in a performance celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He received formal training in dance, as well in theater, as a student at the Corona Academy (now the Corona Theater School) in London.<\/p>\n At 15, he moved to New York on a scholarship to the Martha Graham School, but he soon transferred to the High School of Performing Arts (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). It was there that Mr. Joffrey discovered him and brought him aboard as an apprentice. Mr. Holder went on to work with a number of acclaimed choreographers, including Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins.<\/p>\n Among his many acclaimed performances, he earned raves in Jos\u00e9 Lim\u00f3n\u2019s \u201cThe Moor\u2019s Pavane,\u201d based on Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cOthello,\u201d which opened at the City Center in New York in 1973. As the Moor, he was \u201cpowerful and dominating,\u201d<\/a> Clive Barnes of The Times wrote in a review, \u201cmaking his eventual spiritual collapse all the more tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n After he left the Joffrey in 1979, Mr. Holder was the featured dancer in the San Francisco Opera productions \u201cLa Gioconda\u201d<\/a> (1979), featuring Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto; \u201cSamson and Delilah\u201d<\/a> (1980), with Shirley Verrett and Pl\u00e1cido Domingo; and \u201cAida\u201d<\/a> (1981), starring Pavarotti and Margaret Price. All those productions were choreographed by Ms. Sappington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Later projects included choreographing the American Ballet Theater productions of \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses\u201d<\/a> (1993) and \u201cWeren\u2019t We Fools?\u201d<\/a> (2000), featuring songs by Cole Porter.<\/p>\n No immediate family members survive.<\/p>\n Mr. Holder moved back to London in 2009. A year later, his paintings were exhibited at a group gallery show that also featured his father\u2019s work. In 2015, he presented an autobiographical one-man show, \u201cAt Home and Abroad,\u201d at Crazy Coqs, a London cabaret. He later wrote and directed the play \u201cIda Rubinstein: The Final Act,\u201d<\/a> about a storied Ballets Russes dancer and actress from the Belle \u00c9poque, which opened at the Playground Theater in London in 2021.<\/p>\n Looking back on his Joffrey years in Dance Magazine, he wrote, \u201cWe were a chosen group in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe championed dance at college campuses,\u201d he added. \u201cWe danced to rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Some purists didn\u2019t take us seriously, but we made our mark.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n