20 Facts About Hanya Holm

Hanya Holm was a dancer, choreographer, and above all, a dance educator.

Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm shared a special bond through movement.

Hanya Holm had the creative will and ability to shape a choreographic vision into reality.

Wigman invited Hanya Holm to teach, co-direct the Dresden School, and in her recognition of the opportunity that opening a school in New York could offer the world of dance, eventually sent Hanya Holm to launch a Wigman branch in New York City.

Hanya Holm was not only capable of rising to the challenge of representing the Wigman name and teaching philosophy, she helped to shape the school and build an influence of her own.

Hanya Holm had a unique form of technique that shaped generations of dancers and choreographers including Alwin Nikolais, Mary Anthony, Valerie Bettis, Don Redlich, Alfred Brooks, Liz Aggiss and Glen Tetley.

Hanya Holm's technique stressed the importance of pulse, planes, floor patterns, aerial design, direction, and spatial dimensions.

Hanya Holm's movement emphasized the freedom and flowing quality of the torso and back, but remained based on universal principles of physics for motion.

Hanya Holm trained through improvisation so, a specific movement vocabulary or phrasing that could be carried on through classes does not exist; instead her focus was about learning through discovery.

Hanya Holm choreographed Out of This World, The Liar, My Darlin' Aida, The Golden Apple, My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Anya.

Hanya Holm directed a 1960s television musical adaptation of Pinocchio.

Hanya Holm choreographed extensively in the fields of concert dance and musical theatre.

Hanya Holm was strict; she expected greatness from her students which would come from a willingness to work hard.

Hanya Holm had an extremely keen eye, she had the ability to look at something and verbalize what she wanted using elaborate imagery and analogies.

Hanya Holm used her technique class as a preparation for her improvisation and composition classes.

Hanya Holm taught anatomy, Dalcroze eurhythmics, improvisation, and Labanotation at her school.

Hanya Holm taught at Colorado College, Mills College, University of Wisconsin, Alwin Nikolais School, and was the Head of Dance Department in New York's Musical Theatre Academy.

Hanya Holm was divorced from Reinhold Martin Kuntze, a German sculptor.

Hanya Holm has been honored by the National Dance Association, in 1976, with the Heritage Award for her contributions to dance education.

Hanya Holm died at the age of 99 of pneumonia on 3 November 1992 in New York City, New York.