Review Of "Dancing With Principle: Hanya Holm In Colorado, 1941-1983" By C. Gitelman

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

9-1-2002

Published In

Choice

Abstract

Gitelman (emer., Rutgers Univ.) offers a detailed account of the summer dance program directed by Holm at Colorado College for 43 years. Gitelman was a student and, later, assistant to Holm, who along with Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman was considered one of the "big four" choreographers and teachers in the second generation of American modern dance. Holm came to the US from Germany, where she trained with Mary Wigman; her alliance with Colorado College and the significance of the program's impact on American dance has not heretofore been chronicled in such detail. Gitelman investigates how this program, guided by one master teacher for more than 40 years, created a pedagogic strategy based on a single dance theory. Drawing on her German training, which combined experiences in technique, improvisation, composition, and performance, Holm shaped a philosophy that, through its alumni/ae, took root in many dance-education venues in North America. Gitelman investigates the development of the program from inception through its demise, pondering events, exchanges, and individual actions that created the program's arc. Including 20 pages of black-and-white photographs and two valuable appendixes, this balanced account is recommended for collections supporting the study of dance at the upper-division undergraduate level and above.

Comments

This work is freely available courtesy of Choice Reviews. The review has been reproduced in full in the abstract field.

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