Miss Hill, AKA Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter tells the inspiring and largely unknown story of Martha Hill, a visionary whose life was defined by her love for dance, and who successfully fought against great odds to establish modern dance as a legitimate art form in America.
In a career spanning most of the 20th century, Martha Hill became a behind-the-scenes leader of the dance world as the founding director of The Juilliard Dance Division, a position she held from 1952-85. Stylistically weaving together over 90 years of archival footage featuring Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Jose Limon, Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, George Balanchine, Antony Tudor and more, the film is a celebration of dance and an examination of the passion required to keep it alive. Miss Hill is also a remarkable chronicle of the tense battle over how the newly commissioned Lincoln Center would apportion coveted funding and rehearsal space between Hill’s Juilliard dance division and Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet.
Director Greg Vander Veer conducts lively interviews with Hill’s friends and intimates including key players across generations of dance history: Robert Battle (Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Charles Reinhart (former Director of American Dance Festival), premiere ballerina Heather Watts, Ohad Naharin (Batsheva Dance Company), dance critic Deborah Jowitt and acclaimed choreographers Paul Taylor and Martha Clarke.
Watch the Miss Hill trailer.
