ABSTRACT
In 1994, at the age of 73, Anna Halprin made an unexpected return to the public stage. Invited to perform at a Festival of Jewish Artists at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco, Halprin created a solo performance inspired by her Jewish heritage. This piece, which became known as The Grandfather Dance, was subsequently performed at the American Dance Festival in 1997 and at Halprin's 80th Year Retrospective in 2000. The young Halprin, whose own life was relatively assimilated in mainstream American culture, was captivated by her grandfather's passionate and embodied prayer and his personal sense of relationship with God. Although Halprin had never stopped dancing and creating dances, for more than 20 years her attention had been turned away from theatrical performance and focused on the inter-relationships between artistic and personal process, dance and healing and the creation of contemporary community dance rituals.
