LA MAMA / ELLEN STEWARD

was an American theatre director and producer and the founder of “La Mama Experimental Theatre Club.” I dedicated my show at the Whitney Museum to La Mama.

She has two theaters in the Lower East Side and was the one who brought me from Paris to dance in her theater. I was dancing in Edinburgh, Scotland in a dance festival with Pink Floyd & Soft Machine when La Mama told me, “Girl, I am going to send you a ticket to come dance in my theatre.” Two years later just after the revolution of May 1968, I received my ticket for me and my son to New York and never left. I am forever thankful to her and what she did for me especially while I was in Japan she put me in touch with fabulous people.