Anna Sokolow
Encyclopedia
Training
Sokolow began studying dance and performing with instructors at the Emanuel Sisterhood Settlement House; in early adolescence, she left school to train full time. She began studying in earnest at what became the Neighborhood PlayhouseNeighborhood Playhouse
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is an actor training school at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner.-History:...
, where her teachers included Blanche Talmud, Bird Larson, Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
and Louis Horst
Louis Horst
Louis Horst was a choreographer, composer, and pianist...
.
Career
She started her professional career in 1929 as a member of Martha Graham's company. Beginning in the 1930s, she affiliated herself with the politicized "radical dance" movement, out of which developed her work Anti-War Trilogy (1933). By 1936, she had organized her first company, Dance Unit. Sokolow was also associated with the socially conscious collective the New Dance Group and the larger Workers Dance League. According to dance historian Ellen Graff, Sokolow's work with these groups was instrumental in transforming the "agitprop style" associated with early political dance by melding it with "emerging professional and artistic standards in 'new' dance." Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, she performed and choreographed both solo and ensemble works, which tackled subject matter that included the exploitation of workers and growing troubles of Jews in Germany. Several works from this period, including Anti-War Trilogy, were set to music by the composer Alex NorthAlex North
Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
.
In 1939, Sokolow began a life-long association with the dance in Mexico and Israel. Her work for the Mexican Ministry of Fine Arts facilitated the establishment of the National Academy of Dance. In Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, she choreographed for major dance companies, including Batsheva
Batsheva Dance Company
The Batsheva Dance Company is an internationally acclaimed dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964....
, Inbal
Inbal Dance Theater
Inbal Dance Theater is a dance group operating in Israel. The subject matter and materials the group deals with derive from Jewish tradition and heritage, and from the folklore of the various ethnic groups in Israel – Jewish and non Jewish – such as the Yemenite, Moroccan, Persian and Kurdish...
, and the Lyric Theatre.
Sokolow created works full of dramatic contemporary imagery, revealing the full spectrum of human experience and reflecting the tension and alienation of her time. Rooms (1955), featuring music composed by Kenyon Hopkins
Kenyon Hopkins
Kenyon Hopkins was an American composer who composed many film scores in a jazz idiom. Although he has been neglected in recent years, he was once called "one of jazz's great composers and arrangers"....
for a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
ensemble, dealt with urban alienation, while Dreams (1961) grew from the horrors of the Holocaust. Other major modern dance works included Lyric Suite (1954), Odes (1965), and Opus 65 (1965). In 1991, Anna Kisselgoff summed up Sokolow's aesthetic as "American Expressionism," and commented that "Stillness is a large part of her choreography, and Miss Sokolow can sum up a state of being -- an entire society -- in an arrested pose."
In addition to her work as a choreographer, Sokolow was also an influential teacher of both dance and movement for actors. At Juilliard, she taught what she called "method dancing" from 1958 to 1993.
Sokolow was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame
National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame, in the Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga, New York, was established in 1986 and is the only museum in the nation dedicated entirely to dance. It contains photographs, videos, artifacts, costumes and biographies. The museum is located in the former and...
in 1998.
Repertory
Since the dispersal of Anna Sokolow's company -- Players' Project -- in 2004, its former co-artistic directors have formed separate institutions to maintain Sokolow's Legacy.The Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble http://www.sokolowtheaterdance.org performs Sokolow's repertory plus contemporary choreographies under the direction of Jim May.
Sokolow Now!, the archival dance company of the Sokolow Dance Foundation, performs Sokolow's repertory exclusively and is under the direction of Lorry May. The foundation, http://www.annasokolow.org also offers unique educational programs and actively licenses and reconstructs Sokolow's works.
Many Sokolow's works were filmed and are held at the New York Public Library in its Dance Division.
Works for Broadway
- Noah (1935) - playPlay (theatre)A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
with music by Louis HorstLouis HorstLouis Horst was a choreographer, composer, and pianist...
- co-choreographer - Sing for Your Supper (1939) - revueRevueA revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
- co-choreographer - Street SceneStreet Scene (opera)Street Scene is a Broadway musical or, more precisely, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill , Langston Hughes , and Elmer Rice...
(1947) - musical - choreographer - The Great Campaign (1947) - playPlay (theatre)A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
- choreographer - Sleepy HollowSleepy Hollow (film)Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American period horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones,...
(1948) - musical - choreographer - Regina (1949) - operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
- choreographer - Happy as Larry (1950) - musical - choreographer
- Camino RealCamino Real (play)Camino Real is a 1953 play by Tennessee Williams. In the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play, Williams directs the reader to use the Anglicized pronunciation "Cá-mino Réal." The play takes its title from its setting, alluded to El Camino Real, a dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town...
(1953) - play - directing assistant - Red Roses for Me (1955) - play - choreographer - TonyTony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
Nomination for Best Choreography - CandideCandide (operetta)Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
(1956) - operettaOperettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
- choreographer - Copper and Brass (1957) - musical - choreographer
- Clothes for a Summer HotelTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
(1980) - danceDanceDance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
consultantConsultantA consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
External links
- Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble
- Sokolow Dance Foundation
- Women of Valor exhibit on Anna Sokolow at the Jewish Women's Archive
- Anna Sokolow at the Internet Broadway DatabaseInternet Broadway DatabaseThe Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
- Anna Sokolow from My Point of View (website by a Sokolow student)
- Obituary from Dance Magazine.
- Celebration in Pictures: Anna Sokolow Centennial at the Dance Library of Israel - reflections of Sokolow’s influence on dance in Israel (by Hannah Kosstrin, Dance researcher)