Dancers: Hilde Holger

Max Pollak

Hilde Holger (born Hilde Sofer, 1908 - 2001) was an Expressionist Modernist dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. She began dancing at age six, and would go on to study under famed pioneer of Expressionst dance Gertrud Bodenwieser. She found fame early on and was touring throughout Europe in her teens. In 1926, at age eighteen, she formed her own dance workshop, the New School for Arts in Vienna.

A Jewish woman, Holger had to flee Germany in 1938 with Hitler's rise to power. With help from friends she was able to travel to India, where she learned various forms of classical Indian dance. She opened another dance school in Bombay in 1941 and befriended artists such as Rukmini Devi Arundale, Ram Gupal, and many others. She relocated to England in 1948, forming the Holger Modern Ballet Group and the Hilde Holger School of Contemporary Dance.

Holger would go on to become a dance therapist for children with severe learning disabilities, while continuing her professional dance and teaching careers. By the time of her death in 2001 she was still teaching from her home in London. Her legacy continues in the form of dance schools and workshops formed by her students, numerous documentaries and books, and an archive of her life and work found at HildHolger.com.