Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Hanya Holm [sound recording].

Author

Holm, Hanya, 1893-1992.

Publication

1974-1975.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Tobias, Tobi.
• National Endowment for the Arts, 2008-2009.
• New York State Council on the Arts, 2008-2009.

Description

8 sound discs [ 404 min.] : digital; (4 3/4 in.)

Summary

• Disc 1, 12/17/1974 (ca. 53 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about her philosophy of teaching; her early education including its influence on her working methods; her study of the Dalcroze method and its focus on time and music; her philosophy of learning; her thoughts on Isadora Duncan; Mary Wigman, including the first time she saw Wigman dance; the use of technique to explore one's limits; Mary Wigman's class; space and the dancer; improvisation and structure. [Ends abruptly; interview continues on disc 2.]
• Disc 2, 12/17/1974 (ca. 36 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about experimenting with various movements; turning; her marriage and her son, including her difficulties in providing for him; Wigman's work Totenmal; going to the U.S. in 1931 to establish the New York Wigman School of the Dance, including her impressions of the U.S.; Sol Hurok, including his support for the school; the school during World War II; Wigman's experiences in Germany during and immediately after World War II; Holm's refusal to speak against Wigman; changing the name of the school.
• Disc 3, 12/28/1974 (ca. 60 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about Mary Wigman as an artist, including her contributions to dance; her experiments with turning and folkloric dance; her use of space; the role of music in Holm's dancing [brief pause]; the principles underlying her teaching; teaching when she first came to the U.S., including her working with Henry Cowell on percussion; her use of structured improvisation in her teaching; what she refers to as texture or personality in dancing and the other arts; her reactions to modern dance in the U.S. when she first came; Martha Graham's work Primitive mysteries; her relationship, in general terms, with other modern dance choreographers [brief pause]; compares, again, in general terms, modern dance and ballet; teaching at Bennington College; founding her own company in 1936; her lecture-demonstrations, including in Chicago and at [the College of] William and Mary.
• Disc 4, 04/07/1975 (ca. 60 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about her work Trend, including her consulting with Paul Tillich regarding its subject; its structure and themes and her working method; more on differences between choreographing for ballet and for modern dance, including her thoughts on Balanchine's choreographic process; reasons for the grave, self-conscious quality of much early modern dance; her work Metropolitan daily, including its filming for television; presenting dance on television; her work Tragic exodus and the limitations of dance as a means of political expression; how she communicates through movement; her motivation for dancing; more on ballet as compared with modern dance, in particular their respective relationships with the floor.
• Disc 5, 04/07/1975 and 4/16/1975 (ca. 38 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about teaching in Colorado, including at Colorado College in Colorado Springs; her impressions of the natural environment and people in Colorado [brief gap following which the 4/16/1975 session begins]; the economic aspects of being a dancer; her work in commercial theater, including her first commercial work, about Davey Crockett [The eccentricities of Davey Crockett] for the musical comedy Ballet ballads; her choreography for the musical comedy Kiss me Kate, its notation in labanotation and the issue of copyright [ends abruptly]. [The recording on disc 5 appears to have been recorded in two sessions, the first on April 7, 1975 and the second, beginning after the short gap roughly halfway through track 4, on April 16, 1975.]
• Disc 6, 4/16/1975 (ca. 59 min.). Hanya Holm continues to speak with Tobi Tobias about Kiss me Kate, labanotation, and copyright; dance notation, including its relationship to a dancer's deeper understanding of movement; technique and emotion in performance; her work for the musical comedy My fair lady, including the backgrounds of the dancers and her working with the (non-dancer) singers; staging My fair lady in other countries including Israel; choreographing for opera; ending her career as a performer.
• Disc 7, 4/28/1975 (ca. 38 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about her relationship with her former students, who include Alwin Nikolais, Nancy Hauser, and Valerie Bettis; more about Alwin Nikolais; the creative process, including dealing with the audience's preconceptions and receptivity.
• Disc 8, 4/28/1975 (ca. 60 min.). Hanya Holm speaks with Tobi Tobias about Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis, including their professional relationship; Glen Tetley and Antony Tudor as choreographers who have successfully combined elements of modern dance and ballet; communication and art; the compression of time in today's society and people's failure to take sufficient time to live, learn and create; the difficulty of describing the art of dance in words; discussion of the purpose and conduct of this oral history interview; her philosophy of life, including how this is reflected in her dealing with uncertainties and in her teaching her students to accept responsibility; her thoughts on current modern dance.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project
• Dance Audio Archive

Subjects

• Musicals > Kiss me Kate
• Trend (Choreographic work : Holm, H)
• Ballet ballads (Choreographic work : Godkin, Holm and Litz)
• Improvisation in dance
• Musicals > My fair lady
• Wigman, Mary, 1886-1973
• New York Wigman School of the Dance
• Holm, Hanya, 1893-1992
• Nikolais, Alwin
• Metropolitan daily (Choreographic work : Holm, H)
• Audiotapes > Holm, H
• Dance > Political aspects
• Totenmal (Choreographic work : Wigman)

Note

• Interview with Hanya Holm conducted by Tobi Tobias on Dec. 17 and 28, 1974 and April 7, 16, and 28, 1975 for the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts [now the Library for the Perfoming Arts] in Lincoln Center, New York City. At least part of the interview appears to have been conducted at Hanya Holm's home or studio.
• Sound quality is excellent. There are occasional extraneous noises.

System Details (note)

• Transferred from 4 sound reels (ca. 404 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 5 in.; polyester; originally recorded on Dec. 17 and 28, 1974 and April 7, 16, and 28, 1975) to wav file and (in the case of the dubbing master) compact disc formats in 2008. The listener compact discs were created at The Library for the Performing Arts from the wav files in 2009.

Contents

Former summary: Reel 1. Hanya Holm discusses her early education; studying Dalcroze; the purpose of studying technique; classes with Mary Wigman; turning; her marriage and her son; Totenmal (Wigman); her first impressions of the United States; teaching in New York and World War II. - Reel 2. Mary Wigman's contribution to dance; her philosophy of teaching; improvisational structure; her reactions to American modern dance, in comparison to ballet; teaching at Bennington College; her lecture-demonstrations. - Reel 3. Her work, Trend; Metropolitan daily, on television; how she communicates through movement; the cross-over between ballet and modern dance; teaching in Colorado; working in musical theatre; the notation and recreation of choreography; technique and emotion in performance; My Fair Lady; choreographing for opera; Alwin Nikolais; the creative process. - Reel 4. Communication in art; the importance of taking time to live, learn and create; her philosophy of life; current trends in modern dance.

Call Number

*MGZTL 4-1007

OCLC

78462270

Author

Holm, Hanya, 1893-1992. Interviewee

Title

Interview with Hanya Holm [sound recording].

Imprint

1974-1975.

System Details

Transferred from 4 sound reels (ca. 404 min.; 1 7/8 in. per sec.; 5 in.; polyester; originally recorded on Dec. 17 and 28, 1974 and April 7, 16, and 28, 1975) to wav file and (in the case of the dubbing master) compact disc formats in 2008. The listener compact discs were created at The Library for the Performing Arts from the wav files in 2009.

Local Note

For transcript of interview see: *MGZMT 5-1007.

Former call number: *MGZT 5-1007

Dubbing master: *MGZTD 4-1007 nos. 1-8

Archive original: *MGZTO 5-1007 no. 1-4

Added Author

Tobias, Tobi. Interviewee

National Endowment for the Arts, 2008-2009.

New York State Council on the Arts, 2008-2009.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-1007