MARY ANTHONY FACT SHEET



Date/Place of Birth
  • Born in 1916 in Newport, Kentucky
  • Moved to New York City at 16

Background/Training
  • Formal training in dance began when the Hanya Holm school awarded her a position and three-year tuition waver (1940)
  • Joined Holm's company and became her personal assistant (1943)
  • Studied Graham technique with Sophie Maslow and Jane Dudley at the New Dance Group

Performing Highlights
  • Danced in the Boston premiere of the musical Stovepipe Hat (1944) and Up in Central Park (1945) and Touch and Go, both choreographed by Helen Tamiris.

Choreographic Highlights
  • Lady Macbeth (1948, reconstructed 1999), The Devil in Massachusetts (1952), Threnody (1956), Songs (1956), The Purification (1957), In the Beginning (Adam and Eve) (1960-70), Blood Wedding (1968), and the revue Votate per venere
  • Choreographed for telecasts of Look up and Live and Lamp unto My Feet, two television series
  • In addition to her company, Anthony's choreography has been performed by the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Bat-Dor Company of Israel, the Dublin City Ballet, and the National Institute for the Arts of Taiwan

Teaching/Directing/Personal Company Highlights
  • Taught Holm technique at the New Dance Group, after being invited to do so by Eve Gentry
  • Later taught "Mary Anthony technique", a combination of Graham exercises, Holm technique, and the principles of Rudolf von Laban, at the New Dance Group
  • Opened her own studio in 1954, which would continue to operate into the twenty-first century
  • Began her own company, Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, in 1956


Where to find more about Mary Anthony

Print

Anthony, Mary. "The Hanya Holm New York Studio in the early 1940s." Choreography and Dance. 2:2 (1992): 41-45.

Fox, Josephine. "The Day is Mine, The Land is Mine." Dance Magazine (March 1965): 50-53.

Hering, Doris. "A Rest of the Stagehands and Ushers: City Center American Dance Marathon ’72 Spans Six Weeks at the ANTA Theatre." Dance Magazine (Feb 1963): P 58H-64.

Mazo, Joseph H. "Martha Remembered: Interviews." Dance Magazine. 65:7 (July 1991): 34-45.

Nowak, Donna. "Our National Treasure: Mary Anthony." Attitude. 14:3 (fall/winter 1999): 4-7.

Timm, Frederick. "Mary Anthony at 80: A Celebration of Life and Dance." Dance Magazine. 70:12 (Dec 1996): 60-64.


Video

Interview with Mary Anthony, 7/21/98. Interview by Tonia Shimin. Videocassette. Videography by Dennis Diamond.