Anna Halprin

This guidebook traces the life's work of radical dance-maker Anna Halprin, documenting her early career as a modern dancer in the 1940s through to the development of her groundbreaking approach to dance as an accessible and life-enhancing art form. Tracing the evolution of the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop, it explores Halprin's connections with the avant-garde theatre, music, visual art and architecture of the 1950s and 60s, and analyses her work from this period. Anna Halprin not only offers a useful introduction to the life and work of this major figure, but also provides an important historical guide to a time when dance was first explored beyond the confines of the theatre and considered as a healing art for individuals and communities.

This guidebook traces the life's work of radical dance-maker Anna Halprin, documenting her early career as a modern dancer in the 1940s through to the development of her groundbreaking approach to dance as an accessible and life-enhancing art form. Tracing the evolution of the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop, it explores Halprin's connections with the avant-garde theatre, music, visual art and architecture of the 1950s and 60s, and analyses her work from this period. Anna Halprin not only offers a useful introduction to the life and work of this major figure, but also provides an important historical guide to a time when dance was first explored beyond the confines of the theatre and considered as a healing art for individuals and communities.

Libby Worth is a lecturer in drama and theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. She trained with Anna Halprin (1983-4) and is completing doctoral research on the relationship between movement and play text. Helen Poynor is an international movement artist specialising in site-specific and cross artform collaborative performance. She trained with Anna Halprin (1980-1) and is currently senior lecturer in theatre and performance at the University of Plymouth.