American dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer
Sara Mildred Strauss
Sara Mildred Strauss from a 1918 publication.
Born
September 1, 1896
New York City
Died
July 7, 1979
Wilmington, North Carolina
Nationality
American
Other names
S. Mildred Strauss, Sara Mildred Strauss Newman (after marriage)
Occupation(s)
Dancer, choreographer, educator, writer
Sara Mildred Strauss (September 1, 1896 – July 7, 1979) was an American dancer, educator, choreographer, and writer.
Early life
Strauss was born in 1896, in New York City, the daughter of Lehman Strauss and Pauline Cohn Strauss.[1] In 1911, she and her mother, a noted horsewoman, drove a horse-drawn carriage 280 miles, across the state of New York, as a vacation.[2]
With her company, the Sara Mildred Strauss Dancers,[6] she gave a "novel and experimental" non-musical performance at New York's
Guild Theatre in 1928.[7] In 1930, she fought New York's Sunday observance law, which prevented dance performances on Sundays. She argued that her company's performances were not like theatre; "without the aid of music, pantomime, decor, costume or lighting", they were more like displays of visual art.[8] In 1933 she held free public symposia on dance at her studio in Carnegie Hall, with invited speakers and informal themes.[9]
Strauss created and directed choreography for her company, who appeared in Broadway shows,[10] including the Ziegfeld Follies (1934), and Calling All Stars (1934),[11] and in the musical film Sweet Surrender (1935).[12] She also developed "Living Movement Figure Dolls", bendable mannequins for use in store windows and dance instruction.[4][13]
Writing and other activities
As a young woman, Strauss wrote The Dance and Life (1916), her treatise on the centrality of dance to physical and mental well-being. "The ground of all human art is bodily motion," she explained. "Into bodily motion enters rhythm, which is the mind of the dance and the skeleton of tone."[14]Here an Inch, There an Inch (1966) was her later book on similar themes.[15] She also gave advice on health, fitness, and posture in newspaper columns.[16]
Sara Mildred Strauss married lawyer Isaac Bear Newman (1901-1981). She moved to
Wilmington, North Carolina, late in life, and died there in 1979, aged 82 years.[18] Her papers are in the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection at the
New York Public Library.[4] There is another collection of her papers at the William Madison Randall Library, University of North Carolina at Wilmington.[18]
References
^"Home Matters". The Burlington Free Press. 1905-08-22. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-04-01 – via Newspapers.com.
^
abcDimitriadou-Shuster, Aikaterini.
"Sara Mildred Strauss papers". Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
^"STRAUSS DANCERS GIVE NON-MUSICAL PROGRAM: Recital, First of Its Kind in America, Deals With Story of Creation". The New York Times. April 30, 1928. p. 18 – via ProQuest.
^Martin, John (9 April 1933). "The Dance: A Symposium; Discussions Sponsored by Miss Strauss Proving of Value". The New York Times. p. X6 – via ProQuest.