Holm's Choreographic Vision

Holm's Homage to Mahler is an abstract expression of the deepest grief and also suggests longing for reunion with loved ones in another world. Holm sought monumentality in choreography and performance; sentimentality was to be avoided at all costs. The soloist in parts two and three did not portray a grieving mother, but sought to embody all grief. The student dancers in parts one and four suggested the innocence of children but did not act out childlike behavior. Holm used images in the Rückert poetry to suggest movement which she expanded and wove into the lyric flow of her choreography.

Holm chose a group of short student dancers, four women and three men, for the first and fourth of Mahler's Lieder. She worked with them several nights a week and on weekends during her eight-week summer school. When students did not understand her wishes or were not able to execute a pattern to her satisfaction she could be cruel in giving corrections. Nevertheless, students felt privileged to be working under her direction and they took her harsh criticism gladly. Movement vocabulary of the group sections was simple and the constantly changing groupings were always interesting; Holm displayed her famed ability to move groups through space.

For her realization of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder Holm placed a cube 22 inces per side at quarter-stage right and a ramp against the cyclorama sloping upwards from stage left to a height of about four feet where it disappeared stage right. At the conclusion of the first Lied one dancer slowly walked up the ramp as if to heaven and three others mounted the ramp at the end of the fourth Lied.

After the Colorado premiere of Homage to Mahler, Holm agreed to the performance of the solo and duet in New York. Later, Holm agreed to performances of the solo in Gitelman's program of solo dances and stories titled SKIRT. The program toured in the United States and Europe. In 1992 dancer Betsy Fisher concieved a program of solo dances in the tradition of German dance pioneer Mary Wigman and Holm agreed to her learning the solo from Homage to Mahler. Fisher presented it first at the international conference Dance ReConstructed at Rutgers University in November, 1992. The excerpts were recorded in Labanotation at that time.