Liebe Hanya

by Mary Wigman

"Mary Wigman's groundbreaking choreography and inspired performances in Germany during the 1910s and 1920s placed modern dance on an equal footing with modern painting, theater, and film. Her disciple Hanya Holm took Wigman's aesthetic philosophy to the United States in 1931, effectively adapting it to the American temperament through her teaching and concert works and as a choreographer of Broadway musicals such as Kiss Me, Kate and My Fair Lady. Written between 1920 and 1971, Wigman's letters to Holm bring to life an unusually durable and productive friendship that began as teacher and student then survived a love triangle, business partnership, and long separation by war and politics. A memorable personal account of a century in turmoil, these missives inject immediacy into discussions of Wigman's work within the Third Reich and cast light on Holm's construction of an American identity. Never before published in any language, these letters, introduced by Hedwig Muller and annotated