Anna Halprin

Anna Halprin helped pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to herself as a breaker of the rules of modern dance. Halprin, along with her contemporaries such as Merce Cunningham and John Cage, and her students Trisha Brown, Simone Forti, and Yvonne Rainer, redefined dance in postwar America. In the 1950s, she established the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop to give artists like her a place to practice their art. Being able to freely explore the capabilities of her own body, she created a systematic way of moving using kinesthetic awareness. Many of her works since have been based on scores, including Planetary Dance, 1987, and Myths in the 1960s which gave a score to the audience, making them performers as well.