Hanya Holm — In Memoriam

March 3. 1893–November 3, 1992

Hanya Holm is known as one of the “Big Four” founders of American modern dance. She taught classes at the Nikolais/Louis studio on 18th Street in Manhattan from the mid-70s to the late 80s. Hanya died at the age of 99 of pneumonia on November 3, 1992 in New York City.

See Hanya Holm Is Dead at 99; Influential Choreographer,
by Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times, November 4, 1992

Alwin Nikolais and Hanya Holm at Colorado College Summer Dance Program, 1949

Alwin Nikolais and Hanya Holm, faculty at Colorado
College Summer Dance Program, 1949

Hanya Holm is known as one of the “Big Four” founders of American modern dance, along with Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, and Doris Humphrey. As a student of German choregrapher and dancer Mary Wigmam in Dresden, she soon became a member of the company and a co-director of the Wigman School. She eventually migrated to the U.S. to open a Wigman school in New York City. Holm developed a technique that shaped generations of dancers, including Alwin Nikolais, Mary Anthony, Valerie Bettis, Don Redlich, and Glen Tetley. After the end of World War II, Nikolais studied with Holm at her summer sessions in Colorado in the late 40s.

Hanya Holm teaches class at the Nikolais/Louis Studios on 18th Street in Manhattan

Hanya Holm teaches a class at the Nikolais/Louis studios on 18th Street in Manhattan.
Photo by Patrick Berthelot (ca. 1979), courtesy of Christine Reisner

Years later, from the mid-70s to the late 80s, Hanya taught classes at the Nikolais/ Louis studio on 18th Street in Manhattan.

Lynn Lesniak Needle recalls: “I began teaching the warm-up for Hanya’s classes in 1983. I would teach the warm-up, then meet her in Betty Young’s or Nik’s office and escort her down the long hallway into Murray’s studio where I believe this photo was taken. The drums and chair were already placed, and she would enter in her black dress and chignon and teach from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It was a grueling but memorable class.”

Gerald Otte also often taught the warm-ups for Hanya’s classes. He tells that when he came to get her for her class, she had only one question: “Are they sweaty?”

See an Interview with Hanya Holm by Susan Buirge, focused on her work with Mary Wigman.

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