Anna Halprin

Anna Halprin (born Hannah Dorothy Schuman; July 13, 1920 – May 24, 2021) was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as a breaker of the rules of modern dance. In the 1950s, she established the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop to give artists like her a place to practice their art. Exploring the capabilities of her own body, she created a systematic way of moving using kinesthetic awareness. With her husband, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, she developed the RSVP cycles, a creative methodology that includes the idea of scores and can be applied broadly across all disciplines. Many of her creations have been scores, including Myths in the 1960s which gave a score to the audience, making them performers as well, and a highly participatory Planetary Dance (1987). Influenced by her own battle with cancer and her healing journey, Halprin became known for her work with the terminally ill patients as well as creative movement work in nature. In 1978, together with her daughter Daria Halprin, she founded the Tamalpa Institute, based in Marin County, California, which offers training in Life/Art process, their creative methodology. Halprin has written books including: Movement Rituals, Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance and Dance as a Healing Art. A documentary film about her life and art, Breath Made Visible directed by Ruedi Gerber, premiered in 2010. Early years Halpin was born in Winnetka, Illinois, the daughter of Ida (Schiff) and Isadore Schuman. Born into a Jewish family, Halprin was exposed from a very early age to dance, due to her grandfather's involvement in religious dancing. At 4 years old, Halprin was enrolled by her mother in ballet class to satisfy young Anna's urge to dance. Quickly realizing that the structured environment was no place for a mind and soul as creative as Halprin's, her mother withdrew her from the class and put her into a class that was more focused on movement. At the age of 15, Halprin began studying the techniques of Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan. In 1938, she attended University of Wisconsin under the direction of one of her lifelong mentors Margaret H'Doubler. H'Doubler emphasized the importance of personal creativity and highly encouraged the study of anatomy in order to obtain the most effective ways of moving.