Maslow, Sophie

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MASLOW, SOPHIE

MASLOW, SOPHIE (1911– ), U.S. dancer and choreographer. Maslow was born on the Lower East Side of New York. She joined the Martha Graham company in 1931 and became a member of the New Dance Group in the mid-1930s and its artistic director in 1968. From 1942 to 1954 she performed in the Dudley-Maslow-Bales trio and choreographed many works for that company. Maslow's first works reflected social unrest, exemplified by Dust Bowl Ballads (1941) and Folksay (1942). The Village I Knew (1949), based on a story by *Shalom Aleichem, portrayed a Jewish village in Czarist Russia. She re-staged this work when she worked in Israel with the *Bat-Sheva company (1950). Her other works were Manhattan Transfer (1953); Champion (1948); Celebration (1954), based on Israeli song and dance material; and Poem (1963). From 1951 she frequently choreographed the annual Ḥanukkah Festival at Madison Square Garden. In 1991 she received the Award of Artistry of the American Dance Guild.

[Amnon Shiloah (2nd ed.)]