History

Born in 1920, Anna Haplrin began her dance training at the age of 15, studying the styles of Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan (see some of Isadora Duncan's dancing here). However, she quickly became bored with these styles; her teacher and mentor Margaret H'Doubler, a professor at the University of Wisconson, often encouraged Halprin's individual aesthetic, emphasising individuality within movement quality. While in college, Anna began to experiment with improversation, she became interested in using improv to for a community. Also while attending University of Wisconson, Anna met the man who would be her husband, Lawrence Halprin. Lawrence is a well known architect and landscape artist who is also very interested in working with nature and the natural landscape.

The two moved to moved to San Francisco where Laurence built Anna an outdoor dance deck, something that has become an icon of the prolific artist. Here she held classes in improversation, forming her own technique that had roots in nature and everyday life. She was very interested in anatomy and using the natural design of the human body. She also wanted to explore the idea of community dance, and in 1955 established the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop. It was a groundbreaking time for postmodern dance. This festival provided a place for dancers to work on their own personal style of dance, underscored by Anna's techniques in improv. The workshop was a success, and Anna began to look into dance as a communal healing form.

Anna's theory on dance is that it is more than just movement of the body, but is actually a force that can make things happen. At one point in her life, Anna developed cancer. The outlook looked grim, but she believed so much in the healing power of dance that her cancer eventually went into remission. She continues to work outside with nature and abstract ways of exploring movement. She has been inspired as well as an inspiration to people like Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and composer John Cage. 

In the words of her own husband, " she has reverted to the early meaning of dance in human society, joyful and healing as well as tragic, and based on the most primitive needs of the human condition. These dances are universal."