Mary Anthony

Mary Anthony was born in Newport, Kentucky, in 1916 and grew up with exposure to concerts, plays and museums across the river in Cincinnati, where she took ballet classes. A high-school encounter with Martha Graham's work redirected her toward modern dance. She earned a theater degree at Grinnell College in Iowa and moved to New York in 1940, where a scholarship brought her into Hanya Holm's school.

In 1943 Anthony joined Holm's company, remaining through 1949 while also teaching at Holm's school. She began teaching at the New Dance Group in 1946 and eventually studied with Graham herself. Her performance work extended beyond the concert stage: she appeared in Broadway productions associated with choreographer Helen Tamiris, danced with New York City Opera and performed work by dance partner Joseph Gifford. A London staging of *Touch and Go*, in which Anthony performed a leading role, led to work choreographing musical theater in Italy during the 1950s.

In 1956 she established the Mary Anthony Dance Theater in New York. Its repertory often drew on literary sources and concentrated on human conflict and feeling. The solo *Lady Macbeth* placed Anthony herself in Shakespeare's title role, while *Threnody*, inspired by J. M. Synge's *Riders to the Sea* and set to Benjamin Britten's *Sinfonia da Requiem*, became her most acclaimed work. The company performed across the United States for more than forty years, including engagements at Jacob's Pillow, the American Dance Festival and Tanglewood, and maintained New York seasons for more than thirty years. A 1996 season at the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse marked the troupe's fortieth anniversary.

Teaching became Anthony's widest legacy. Her students and company associates included Donald McKayle, Arthur Mitchell, Ronald K. Brown, Elisa Monte, Ulysses Dove, Yuriko Kimura, Ross Parkes, Daniel Maloney, Richard Kuch and Steve Rooks. She encouraged choreographic agency and asked dancers to connect physical form with emotional and imaginative purpose. The 2004 New York Dance and Performance Award—known as a Bessie—cited her inspirational teaching, and the Martha Hill Dance Fund gave her its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Anthony continued to transmit and revisit repertory late in life. *Women of Troy* was reconstructed on Dancefusion in 2004, and *The Devil in Massachusetts* was reconstructed by 360° Dance Company in 2009. A 92nd Street Y tribute in November 2013 presented excerpts performed by younger dancers. She died on May 31, 2014, at her home in Manhattan's East Village, leaving a legacy sustained through former students, reconstructed works and the Mary Anthony Dance Theater Foundation.