Background
Walter Sorell was born on May 2, 1905, in Vienna, Austria.
(From the jacket cover : "The human hand is one of those m...)
From the jacket cover : "The human hand is one of those miracles which we take for granted, a mystery with which we live and a reality which we use as a tool...without being aware of its intricate implications."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0297764624/?tag=2022091-20
1968
(KIRKUS REVIEW Hanya Holm is one of our country's leading ...)
KIRKUS REVIEW Hanya Holm is one of our country's leading modern dance innovators, instructors, and choreographers, probably best known generally for her work in such Broadway productions as Kiss Me Kate and My Fair Lady. This is graceful biography that contains much intriguing comment on the aesthetics and dynamics of the dance in general, illuminating, of necessity, the personality of Miss Holm who is virtually inseparable from her work. Born and educated in Germany, she evolved her theories of organic dynamicism from her studies with the then revolutionary modernist, Mary Wigman, known as ""the Eleanor Duse of the Dance."" Miss Wigman's style so impressed Sol Hurok that he persuaded her to open a school in America and the young Hanya was imported to start it. Miss Holm was sensitive to the lyricism and gawky freedom of American life and she incorporated it into her techniques based on enlightened improvisation. Soon her school and her performances were attracting wide-eyed critical attention. This is drawn from letters, articles, reviews, programs and interviews and a year of absorbing the work now underway in Colorado Springs. An adamantine artist, Miss Holm's approach and philosophy should both benefit and inspire. For a special audience.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006BZ6RU/?tag=2022091-20
1969
(Insightful comments and observations about dance from lea...)
Insightful comments and observations about dance from leading dancers, choreographers, and dance scholars, including: George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Erick Hawkins, Pauline Kroner, Deborah Jowitt, Gus Solomons Jr, Murray Louis and Stuart Hodes. Illustrated with performance photographs, the book illuminates every aspect of the world of dance and is an invaluable resource for students, dance lovers, and professionals.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556521243/?tag=2022091-20
1992
critic educator painter writer
Walter Sorell was born on May 2, 1905, in Vienna, Austria.
Sorell attended the University of Vienna and participated in political theatre groups.
During his career, he received an honorary doctorate from Valparaiso University in Indiana.
Sorell was a dance critic who wrote articles for periodicals, including The Providence Journal, as well as books such as The Dance Through the Ages and Dance in Its Time. He worked as an information specialist with the U.S. Information Agency from 1950 until 1966, also finding time to teach at the New School for Social Research, Columbia University, Cornell University, and the University of North Carolina. A contributor to magazines, including Ballet Today and Dance News, Sorell also translated works such as German choreographer Mary Wigman’s The Language of Dance and Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. Among his other books is The Story of the Human Hand, the biography Hanya Holm, The Swiss: A Cultural Panorama of Switzerland, and Three Women.
Sorell also published poetry and did radio broadcasts for the Voice of America and wrote several plays, including ''Everyman Today,'' staged by the Union Theological Seminary in 1958. An artist as well as a writer, Sorell began exhibiting his paintings when he was in his 70's, having more than 40 exhibitions.
Sorell worked as a freelance writer and painter until his death in 1997.
(Insightful comments and observations about dance from lea...)
1992(KIRKUS REVIEW Hanya Holm is one of our country's leading ...)
1969(From the jacket cover : "The human hand is one of those m...)
1968(A historical survey shows dance in the context of its env...)
1986Sorell admired the passion of the Romantic era and the fervour of early modern dance but was suspicious of some of the anarchic choreographic experiments of the 1960's.
Quotes from others about the person
Anna Kisselgoff declared ''Unlike any other critic writing today, Sorell considers dance within a broad intellectual and rich cultural context.''
Sorell was married to Gertrude Maria. The couple had one stepson, Gerald.