The Bear in the Mirror
is a collection of stories, prose poems, drawings, photos, letters, notes and memories by Simone Forti (born 1935)—a founding figure of postwar American dance for those following in the wake of Merce Cunningham, who has transmitted her own legacy in part through several previous collections of writings (such as
Handbook in Motion
, 1974;
Angel
, 1978; and
Oh Tongue
, 2003).
delves into the stories of Forti’s family, who fled their native Florence in 1938 to escape Mussolini’s persecution of Jews and resettled in Los Angeles. Forti discusses the wool mills they once owned and the life they left behind, and takes us on a mesmerizing journey from 1938 to the present, from Italy through Occupied France to Holland, where the family boarded a boat to Los Angeles and Forti eventually commenced the career that has made her such a colossally influential figure.