In Memoriam: Sally Gross

August 3, 1933–July 20, 2015

Sally Gross, a leading avant-garde dancer and choreographer whose minimalist works helped propel the postmodern dance movement, died on Monday, July 20, in Sag Harbor, New York. She was 81.


See obituary: Sally Gross, Choreographer of Minimalist Dances, Dies at 81,
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, July 24, 2015

Complete biography: Sally Gross (choreographer)


Sally Gross came to the Henry Street Playhouse in 1951, studying with Alwin Nikolais until 1957. In the early 50s she performed in the Playhouse Dance Company, which created dance plays for children not only at the Playhouse but also in school auditoriums throughout the Metropolitan area.

In 1957 she studied with Anna Halprin for a year in California. Upon her return she studied and performed with Merle Marsicano for three years. She began presenting dances in the 1960s as a member of the Judson Dance Theater and continued to choreograph, dance, and teach. Sally received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. She was awarded an NEA U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, which afforded her the opportunity to spend six months in Japan. The Corporation of Yaddo generously invited her to be a resident artist in their summer program from 2007 to 2010. For her work in dance she received a lifetime achievement award from Brooklyn College in 2009. Sally Gross is the subject of the Albert Maysles and Kristen Nutile documentary Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness (2007).

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