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Dwayne Schintzius

Dwayne Kenneth Schintzius (October 14, 1968 – April 15, 2012) was an American National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player. He was born in Brandon, Florida and attended the University of Florida, where he helped lead the Florida Gators men's basketball program to its first three NCAA tournament appearances as an all-conference center. Schintzius was selected in the first round of the 1990 NBA draft (24th overall) by the San Antonio Spurs, but chronic back problems reduced his effectiveness, and he played for six different NBA teams over ten seasons in the league, mainly as a reserve player.

Off the court, Schintzius was known for his distinctive mullet-style haircut that he called "the lobster", his sometimes abrasive behavior, and his performance as a Russian basketball player in the 1996 comedy film Eddie. In 2009, he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. After treatment and a brief remission, he died from complications of the disease in 2012.

Early years
Schintzius was born in Brandon, Florida, a suburb of Tampa. He attended Brandon High School, where the seven-foot center played for the Brandon Eagles high school basketball team. Together with teammate Toney Mack, Schintzius led the Eagles to a Class 4A state runner-up finish as a sophomore, and another Final Four berth as a junior. As a senior, he averaged 21.1 points and 17 rebounds per game, was a finalist for Florida's Mr. Basketball award, and was recognized as a high school All-American by McDonald's and Parade magazine in 1986.

College career
Schintzius received athletic scholarship offers from many top college programs. Unlike most top Florida high school basketball prospects up to that point, he chose to stay in-state and attend the University of Florida, where he played for the Florida Gators men's basketball team from 1987 to 1990 under head coach Norm Sloan. Schintzius started at center for the Gators beginning early in his freshman season. By the end of his junior season (1988–89), he had led the Gators in scoring, rebounding, and free-throw percentage over at least one full season. He also set the program's record for blocked shots, and at the end of his junior year, his season blocked shot totals ranked first, second, and third in school history.

The Gators had never been invited to the NCAA basketball tournament in over seven decades of basketball. However, they made the field during each of Schintztius's three full seasons with the program and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in 1987. During his junior year, the Gators won their first-ever regular season Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship. Schintzius was recognized as a first-team All-SEC player after that season and was included on multiple All-American lists.

However, Schintzius' college career was marred by disciplinary problems. He occasionally clashed with Coach Sloan, including one instance in which he refused to re-enter a game with a minute left during his sophomore season. He also had minor incidents with opposing players, fans, and mascots, and with others off the court.

During his junior season, Schintzius allegedly heard a rude remark from a sidewalk while riding in a car outside a Gainesville nightclub and stormed after the offender wielding a tennis racket. Schintzius later apologized and was not charged with a crime, but the university's office of student affairs found him guilty of violating the student code of conduct and suspended him for four games.

After returning from that suspension, fans in opposing arenas occasionally threw tennis balls onto the court, presumably taunting Schintzius for the incident. In January 1989, Florida traveled to Nashville to face the Vanderbilt Commodores in a crucial SEC matchup. Losing 72–70, Florida turned the ball over with only one second left on the clock, seemingly sealing a loss. But at that point, someone in the Memorial Gymnasium home crowd threw a tennis ball onto the court. Referee John Clougherty immediately called a technical foul on the Commodores, and Schintzius, who led the Gators in free throw percentage that season, hit both free throws to send the game into overtime. He then scored the Gators' first seven points in the extra period and Florida won the game 81–78. Florida went on to capture the program's first SEC regular season championship, beating Vanderbilt by a single game.

Sloan was forced to resign before Schintzius's senior season of 1989–90 and was replaced on an interim basis by former Tennessee coach Don DeVoe. Schintzius was not happy with this turn of events and skipped DeVoe's first practice with the team along with fellow star Livingston Chatman. Soon after, he was suspended for alleged involvement in a fraternity house fight. DeVoe told Schintzius that in order to rejoin the basketball team, he would have to improve his off-court behavior, maintain his playing weight (he weighed almost 300 pounds at one point), go to class consistently, and get rid of his distinct mullet-style haircut, known as the "lobster.". In a statement released January 25, 1990, Schintzius claimed that he had done all these things, but was nonetheless quitting the team due to conflicts with his new coach. The statement read, in part:

No one can argue that Coach Sloan and Coach Towe (Monte Towe, Sloan's assistant) were easy to play for, and to them you had to accept the coach as the absolute authority and their word as final; but that does not mean I must sail under the authority of Captain Ahab. If you can play for Coach Sloan, you can play for almost anyone, almost anyone.

Without Schintzius, the Gators lost sixteen of the seventeen games to end the season and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since the year before his arrival.

Schintzius remains the only player in SEC history to amass more than 1,000 points, 800 rebounds, 250 assists and 250 blocks. He still holds Florida's career record for blocked shots (272), and is ranks sixth among the program's all time scoring leaders with 1,624 points.

Professional career
Despite his personal issues, Schintzius was regarded as a good NBA prospect due to his performance on the court. Schintzius was widely projected as a top five pick before his suspension and during the suspension was seen as a lottery pick being mocked as high as 3rd overall to the late lottery with some seeing Schintzius as the most talented big-man in the draft. The San Antonio Spurs selected him in the first round (twenty-fourth pick overall) of the 1990 NBA draft. He injured his back during his rookie season and was traded to the Sacramento Kings for Antoine Carr on September 23, 1991. He later revealed that Spurs general manager Bob Bass disliked his mullet haircut and told him to cut it, which he did. Schintzius then sent Bass the shavings in an envelope. The Kings waived Schintzius during the 1991–92 season, and the New Jersey Nets signed him on October 1, 1992.

Schintzius' NBA career was severely hampered by injuries, particularly chronic back problems. He had several surgeries for a spinal disc herniation and often missed long stretches of playing time as he moved from team to team, mostly serving as a reserve center. He spent three seasons with the New Jersey Nets, a year with the Indiana Pacers, and then a year with the Los Angeles Clippers. Schintzius only played 15 games with the Clippers but did post 15 points in a loss against the Bullets on January 10, 1997. This game also featured the only three point make of Schintzius' NBA career. After missing the entire 1997–98 season due to injury, he played 16 games with the Boston Celtics in 1998–99 before retiring from the NBA. In eight NBA seasons, he appeared in 217 regular season games and started 33 of them.

He later came out of retirement to play in the minor leagues, and appeared in 35 games for the Mobile Revelers of the NBA's Development League in 2001–02. He last played for the Brevard Blue Ducks of the United States Basketball League (USBL) in 2003.

Off the court
Schintzius played Ivan Radovadovitch, a fictional Georgian player for the New York Knicks, in the 1996 comedy movie Eddie, which starred Whoopi Goldberg as the team's female coach. Several other actual NBA players were also featured as members of the Knicks and other real NBA teams in the film. He later appeared in local commercials.

At the trial of his former New Jersey Nets teammate Jayson Williams, he testified that he witnessed Williams kill his own dog with a shotgun.

Illness and death
In November 2009, Schintzius was diagnosed with a chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, a rare and often fatal form of the disease. With a bone marrow donation from his brother Travis, he underwent bone marrow transplantation at the Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa on January 12, 2010. The procedure was considered a success, but Schintzius struggled through several difficult rounds of chemotherapy until being declared cancer-free in July 2010.

In early 2012, Schintzius continued to suffer from complications, and a second bone marrow transplant was required. On April 15, 2012, Schintzius died at the Moffit Cancer Center from respiratory failure; he was 43 years old.

title: Dwayne Schintzius


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Ted Shawn

Ted Shawn (born Edwin Myers Shawn; October 21, 1891 – January 9, 1972) was a male pioneer of American modern dance. He created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. With his innovative ideas of masculine movement, he was one of the most influential choreographers and dancers of his day. He was also the founder and creator of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, and "was knighted by the King of Denmark for his efforts on behalf of the Royal Danish Ballet."

Ted Shawn and the creation of Denishawn
Ted Shawn was born in Kansas City, Missouri on October 21, 1891. Originally intending to become a minister of religion, he attended the University of Denver where he caught diphtheria at the age of 19, causing him temporary paralysis from the waist down. It was during his physical therapy for the disease that Shawn was introduced to dance in 1910, studying with Hazel Wallack, a former dancer with the Metropolitan Opera. In 1912, Shawn relocated to Los Angeles where he became part of an exhibition ballroom dance troupe with Norma Gould as his partner.

After moving to New York in 1914, Shawn married Ruth St. Denis on August 13, two months after their meeting. St. Denis served not only as a partner but an extremely valuable creative outlet to Shawn. Both artists believed strongly in the potential for dance as an art form becoming integrated into everyday life. The combination of their mutual artistic vision and Shawn's business knowledge led to the couple opening the first Denishawn School in Los Angeles, California in 1915, with the goal of melding dance with body, mind and spirit.

Notable performances choreographed by him during Denishawn's 17-year run include Invocation to the Thunderbird(1917), the solo Danse Americaine, performed by Charles Weidman (1923), Julnar of the Sea, Xochitl performed by Martha Graham (1920) and Les Mystères Dionysiaques. In addition to spawning the careers of Weidman and Graham, the Denishawn school also housed Louise Brooks and Doris Humphrey as students.

Style and technique
Together, Shawn and Ruth St. Denis established an eclectic grouping of dance techniques including ballet (done without shoes) and movement that focused less on rigidity and more on the freeing of the upper body. To add to St. Denis's mainly eastern influence, Shawn introduced elements of North African, Spanish, American and Amerindian dance, ushering in a new era of modern American dance. Breaking with European traditions, their choreography connected the physical and spiritual, often drawing from ancient, indigenous, and international sources.

Ted Shawn and His Male Dancers
Due to Shawn's marital problems and financial difficulties, Denishawn closed in the early 1930s. Subsequently, Shawn formed an all-male dance company of athletes he taught at Springfield College, with the mission to fight for acceptance of the American male dancer and to bring awareness of the art form from a male perspective.

The all-male company was based out of a farm that Shawn purchased near Lee, Massachusetts. On July 14, 1933, Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers had their premier performance at Shawn's farm, which would later be known as Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Shawn produced some of his most innovate and controversial choreography to date with this company such as "Ponca Indian Dance", "Sinhalese Devil Dance", "Maori War Haka", "Hopi Indian Eagle Dance", "Dyak Spear Dances", and "Kinetic Molpai". Through these creative works Shawn showcased athletic and masculine movement that soon would gain popularity. The company performed in the United States and Canada, touring more than 750 cities, in addition to international success in London and Havana. Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers concluded at Jacob's Pillow on August 31, 1940, with a homecoming performance.

Shawn had a romantic relationship with one of his dancers, Barton Mumaw, from 1931 to 1948. One of the leading stars of the company, Barton Mumaw would emerge onto the dance industry and be considered "the American Nijinsky". While with Shawn, Mumaw began a relationship with John Christian, a stage manager for the company. Mumaw introduced Shawn to Christian. Later, Shawn formed a partnership with Christian, with whom he stayed from 1949 until his death in 1972.

Jacob's Pillow
With this new company came the creation of Jacob's Pillow: a dance school, retreat, and theater. The facilities also hosted teas, which, over time, became the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Shawn also created The School of Dance for Men around this time, which helped promote male dance in colleges nationwide.

Shawn taught classes at Jacob's Pillow just months before his death at the age of 80. In 1965, Shawn was a Heritage Award recipient of the National Dance Association. Shawn's final appearance on stage in the Ted Shawn Theater at Jacob's Pillow was in Siddhas of the Upper Air, where he reunited with St. Denis for their fiftieth anniversary.

Saratoga Springs is now the home of the National Museum of Dance, the United States' only museum dedicated to professional dance. Shawn was inducted into the museum's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987.

Writings
Ted Shawn wrote and published nine books that provided a foundation for Modern Dance:
 * 1920 – Ruth St. Denis: Pioneer and Prophet
 * 1926 – The American Ballet
 * 1929 – Gods Who Dance
 * 1935 – Fundamentals of a Dance Education
 * 1940 – Dance We Must
 * 1944 – How Beautiful Upon the Mountain
 * 1954 – Every Little Movement: a Book About Francois Delsarte
 * 1959 – Thirty-three Years of American Dance
 * 1960 – One Thousand and One Night Stands (autobiography, with Gray Poole)

Legacy
In the 1940s, Shawn bestowed his works to the Museum of Modern Art. The museum subsequently deaccessed these works, giving them to New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Jacob's Pillow archive, while Shawn was still alive. Dancer Adam Weinert saw this as a violation of MoMA's policy not to sell or give away works by living artists, and created The Reaccession of Ted Shawn, digital, augmented reality performances of Shawn's works to be displayed in MoMA.

Media

 * Archive footage
 * Ted Shawn's Men Dancers performing in Finale from The New World in 1936 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
 * Ted Shawn performing Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen from Four Dances Based on American Folk Music in 1938 at Jacob's Pillow
 * Ted Shawn's Men Dancers performing Kinetic Molpai in 1937 at Jacob's Pillow
 * Jacob's Pillow Men Dancers rehearsing Kinetic Molpai with Barton Mumaw in 1992 at Jacob's Pillow
 * Ted Shawn's Men Dancers performing in Sixth Prelude from The Well Tempered Clavichord in 1933 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
 * Barton Mumaw performing Ted Shawn's O Brother Sun and Sister Moon (A Study of St. Francis) in 1981 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
 * Photographs
 * Photograph of Ted Shawn by James Walter Collinge (10th picture in gallery)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Ted Shawn