Martha Hill

Martha Hill (born December 1, 1900 in East Palestine , Ohio , † November 19, 1995 in New York ) was one of the most important and influential dance teachers of the 20th century in the United States of America .

Life

Martha Hill was a dancer in Martha Graham's company for a short time , but ended her active dancing career early in order to introduce dance as an independent study at universities. Originally hired as a dance instructor in New York University's sports department , she became director of the dance division she founded in 1930. She created the dance program at Bennington College in Vermont. From 1934 she invited the most important choreographers of her time there to participate and teach at the annual summer festival. In addition to Graham, there were Hanya Holm , Doris Humphrey , Charles Weidman and many others. After the Second World War, Hill founded the Connecticut College School of Dance, which gave rise to the American Dance Festival. In 1951 she was appointed the first director of the new dance course at the Juilliard School in New York and gathered the best teachers in the dance world around her. Her faculty included Antony Tudor , Anna Sokolow , José Limón and many more. She remained director until 1985 and taught at Juilliard until 1992. The list of her students is a veritable “Who's Who” of the dance world. These include German choreographers such as Pina Bausch and Henning Rübsam .

Hill married Dr. Thurston Davies († 1961).

literature

• "The Contributions of Martha Hill to American Dance and Dance Education, 1900-1995" - Elizabeth McPherson, Edwin Mellen Press, 2008
• "Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance" - Janet Mansfield Soares, Wesleyan University Press, 2009 - ISBN 9780819568991

Web links

• Martha Hill Dance Fund http://www.marthahilldance.org/