Hanya Holm (1893 - 1992)

Hanya Holm came to the United States in 1931 from her native Germany to establish a branch school for Mary Wigman, the great German modern dance pioneer. Holm won a place beside Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Wiedman as one of the "Big Four" founders of American modern dance. In 1937 she created one of modern dance's greatest masterpieces; Trend was a work of epic proportions about social destruction and rebirth. Other award-winning dances followed which Holm toured and presented regularly in New York. In 1948 she turned her attention to musical theater and after success of Ballet Ballads and Kiss Me, Kate she went on to choreograph eleven other Broadway hits and near-hits, My Fair Lady and Camelot among them. She continued to produce concert choreography at a regional center for the arts in Colorado. Between 1975 and 1985 she produced five works for Don Redlich Dance Company, one of which, Jocose, toured the world in the repertory of Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Project in 1994. Holm was a recipient of all three national dance awards, the Capezio Award, the Dance Magazine Award and the American Dance Festival Scripps Award.

 

 

Top: Photo by Marcus Blechman of Hanya Holm in 1956. Above: Photo by Alan Goldsmith of Rutgers University Reconstruction in 1997 Left: Photo by Tom Kanthak of Hanya Holm in 1974 with Mimi Kim, former member of Hanya Holm Dance Company.