Anna Halprin was a choreographer known for her experimental postmodern dance style, as well as for using dance as a healing tool.
- Died: May 24, 2021 (Who else died on May 24?)
- Details of death: Died at her home in Kentfield, California at the age of 100.
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Experimental dance
Halprin based her work in California, where she founded the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop in 1959. She broke boundaries there by bring dance out of the studio and concert hall, having dancers perform in parks, on rooftops, and in other non-traditional dance spaces. Her notable works included “Myth,” which invited audience participation, and “Parades and Changes,” in which the dancers stripped down entirely in a performance that shocked some 1965 audiences. While some reviewers were delighted by the daring work’s artistry, it was also banned and arrest warrants were issued for the performers.
Healing through dance
After Halprin was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1972, she began exploring dance as a tool that could be used in healing and recovery. She also sought to use dance as part of palliative care, comforting the dying through art. In 1978, Halprin co-founded the non-profit Tamalpa Institute, which “offers expressive arts training programs and workshops for healing, education, and social transformation.”
Halprin on “Parades and Changes”
“I was working with nudity, not from the point of view of, ‘Oh, this is shocking,’ but because I came from this more organic, art-related vantage point. I was shocked when we were arrested for nudity in New York in the Sixties. ‘Why are you arresting us? You see nudity in galleries all the time. Why are you arresting me? I’m not doing anything wrong.’” —from a 2012 interview for SFAQ
Tributes to Anna Halprin
Full obituary: The Washington Post
