107 CHOREOGRAPHERS GET $678,000 IN FEDERAL GRANTS

Federal grants totaling $678,000 were awarded to 107 independent professional choreographers to further their careers, with two special $36,000 fellowships to veteran dance figures Hanya Holm and Phoebe Neville of New York.

The awards were made by the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency that underwrites a variety of artists and artistic organizations. The dance fellowships are intended in part to encourage choreographers to create new works or to collaborate with other artists.

“The exciting thing about this year’s grants is that we were able to help not only well-established choreographers, such as Hanya Holm and Phoebe Neville, but also those artists who have made a promising start and those of apparent talent who are just beginning their careers,” said Nigel Redden, director of the endowment’s dance program.

Special $12,000 fellowships for each of three years were awarded to Holm as “one of the original pioneers of modern dance” and to Neville for “many years of success in the creation of new works that are intense and dramatic in their appeal,” Redden said.

Holm, who opened her own school of dance in New York in 1931, helped choreograph the Broadway musicals “Kiss Me, Kate” and “My Fair Lady.” She will use her fellowship to create a new piece for the Don Redlich Dance Company.

Neville, a successful choreographer for 22 years, heads her own dance company and is production instructor in dance at Columbia University Teachers College. She plans to choreograph a dance for five dancers, including herself, set to a contemporary musical score, the endowment said.