Hanya Holm came to the United States in 1931 from her native Germany to establish a branch school for Mary Wigman, the great German modern dance pioneer. Ms. Holm won places beside Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Wiedman as one of the "Big Four" founders of American modern dance.

In 1937, she created one of modern dance's greatest masterpieces. Trend was a work of epic proportions about social destruction and rebirth. Other award-winning dances followed which Holm toured and presented regularly in New York. In 1948, she turned her attention to musical theater and after success of Ballet Ballads and Kiss Me, Kate, she went on to choreograph eleven other Broadway hits and near-hits, My Fair Lady and Camelot among them. She continued to produce concert choreography at a regional center for the arts in Colorado.

Between 1975 and 1985, she produced five works for the Don Redlich Dance Company, one of which, Jocose, toured the world in the repertoire of Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak  Project in 1994. Hanya Holm was the recipient of all three national dance awards, the Capezio Award, the Dance Magazine Award and the American Dance Festival Scripps Award.


Pina Bausch (1940 - 2009)

Ms. Bausch was the artistic director and choreographer of the "Dance Theatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch Company", based in Wuppertal, Germany. The company has a large repertoire of original pieces and regularly tours throughout the world. Ms. Bausch was born in Solingen, Germany and began dancing at a young age. In 1955 she began studying at the Folkwang Academy in Essen, directed by Germany's then most influential choreographer Kurt Jooss, one of the founders of German Expressionist dance.

After graduation, she won a scholarship to continue her studies at the Juilliard School in New York in 1960, where her teachers included Anthony Tudor, José Limón, and Paul Taylor. In New York she performed with the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company, the New American Ballet, and became a member of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company.

Ms. Bausch's work is also known for infusing humor with sadness. Male-female interaction is a theme found throughout her work, which has been an inspiration for and reached a wider audience through the movie "Talk to Her", directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Her pieces are constructed of short units of dialogue and action, often of a surreal nature. Repetition was an important structuring device. Her large multi-media productions often involved elaborate sets and eclectic music. For example, in Masurca Fogo half the stage is taken up by a giant, rocky hill, and the score includes everything from Portuguese music to K. D. Lang. In 1983, she played the role of La Principessa Lherimia in Federico Fellini's "And the Ship Sails On".

Pina Bausch was married to Dutch-born Rolf Borzik, a set and costume designer who died in 1980. Mr. Borzik had strongly influenced the visual style of the Dance Theatre from the very beginning and crucially supported Ms. Bausch through the early years until the company began to receive international recognition shortly before his death. In 2008, Ms. Bausch was awarded the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt-am-Main. She died in Wuppertal, Germany on June 30, 2009.

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