'Spirit of the Dance'

With guidance from Edith Halpert, the Rockefeller family chose Donald Deskey to design the interiors of Radio City Music Hall. Deskey selected Zorach's Spirit of the Dance for the project from a series of drawings presented to him by a variety of artists. Cast in the ultra modern medium of aluminum, the over life-size dancer taking a bow was completed in 1933. Appalled by what he considered to be the "lacivious" nature of the monumental nude, theater empresario "Roxy" Rothafel ordered it removed from view. However, when Zorach exhibited the full- size clay model, it was so well received by both art critics and the general public that this decision was reversed. The sculpture was returned to the theater and placed in the lower level lounge area where it can still be found today.

Zorach authorized both the 1/3-scale model and the full-size model of Spirit of the Dance to be cast in bronze in editions of six each. The full-size examples are: Private collection, Georgetown, Maine; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan; The Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, Florida; Lake Erie College Art Gallery; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska; and the present example