Martha Hill research materials

1870-2002 [bulk 1934-1986]

Martha Hill (1900-1995) was one of the most influential dance instructors of the 20th century and the first director of the Juilliard Dance Division. She was born in East Palestine, Ohio and attended the Battle Creek Normal School of Physical Education in Battle Creek, Michigan. After her graduation in 1920, she accepted the position of dance instructor there, teaching ballet and Swedish gymnastics. In 1923, she was hired as dance instructor at Kansas State Teachers College, remaining there until her move to New York City in 1926.

Hill had traveled to New York to study Dalcroze eurhythmics at the Institute of Musical Art and dance technique with Anna Duncan. While in the city, she attended a Martha Graham concert - spurring Hill to take a position as Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Oregon in 1927 to earn some money. After two years there, she returned to join Martha Graham's studio.

In addition to dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Hill began teaching high school students at the Lincoln School of Teachers College. During this time she was listed in Martha Graham dance programs as "Martha Todd" since it was felt her career as a professional dancer would be frowned upon since she had influence over young girls - even though she was a dance teacher.

She was hired to teach at New York University in the Physical Education Department of the School of Education in 1930. She was compelled to leave the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1931 because of an increasingly demanding teaching schedule. In 1932, Hill began work at the brand new Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont as chairman of the Dance Department. She held positions at New York University and Bennington College simultaneously until 1951.

In the summer of 1934, Hill initiated a summer dance festival on the Bennington College campus - the Bennington School of the Dance, which ran as a summer program until 1942. Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm were key faculty members who spent their summers teaching and performing at Bennington. Hill was convinced that dance should be taught - and dance teachers should be taught - not as an extension of physical education departments, but as an art form.

Hill received her Masters degree in Dance Education from New York University in 1941. In 1948 she formed a School of the Dance at Connecticut College calling it the "Connecticut College School of the Dance". This new summer festival hired many of the same teachers and choreographers from the Bennington School. This festival was a precursor of the American Dance Festival.

In 1951 the president of the Juilliard School, William Schuman, hired Hill to be the school's first Director of Dance. Schuman and Hill had a bold new concept of creating a training program for dancers that would be equally split between ballet and modern dance. It was her belief that the two should not be mutually exclusive, but should be studied in tandem to produce well-rounded dancers. Hill married Dr. Thurston Davies in 1952.

Hill remained the director of dance at Juilliard until 1985, training dozens of students. Some of these included Paul Taylor, Martha Clarke, Susan Marshall, Jenny Coogan, Robert Garland, and Stanley Love. She was named Artistic Director Emeritus in 1985, but continued to teach senior seminars at Juilliard for several years. She died at the age of 94 on November 19, 1995.

Janet Mansfield Soares, is a dancer, choreographer, and author of Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance. She was a student, colleague, and teacher of dance composition with Martha Hill at the Juilliard School Dance Division. She is a professor emerita of dance at Barnard College, Columbia University, and lives in Tucson, Arizona, and Lyme, Connecticut.