Pearl Lang

Pearl Lang (1921-2009)

Dancer, choreographer and teacher. A native of Chicago, she began her dance training as a child and studied acting at the Goodman Theatre and Workmen’s Circle. In 1938 she enrolled in a program for gifted students at the University of Chicago. In 1941, she moved to New York and studied with Martha Graham and Louis Horst. Lang performed in musicals in Broadway and danced in the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1942-52. After leaving the company, she continued to perform with it as a guest artist from 1954 through the late 1970s.
In 1952, she founded her own company, the Pearl Lang Dance Theater, for which she choreographed 63 works, many of which were rooted in Jewish themes, including Shirah (1960) and The Possessed (1974), based on The Dybbuk. She choreographed for film, opera, theater and television, as well as for numerous companies worldwide. These included the Dutch National Ballet, Boston Ballet and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She shared a building with Ailey’s company in New York, and the two also co-directed the American Dance Center as a joint school. 
In the mid-60s she arrived in Israel and taught her choreographies in Bat-Dor and Batsheva. In 1967, Batsheva danced her choreographies Shore Bourne and Voices of Fire, an original choreography created especially for the company.
In addition to her work as a choreographer, Lang taught many young dancers. She taught in Yale (1952-68), Juilliard (1963-86), Connecticut College and Neighborhood Playhouse (1963-68). She also taught at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance up until shortly before her death.
Among the many citations and awards that Lang received are two Guggenheim Fellowships for Choreography; the Martha the Martha Graham Award for Performance and Choreography; The Workmen’s Circle Award for her contribution to Jewish Culture; the Achievement Award from the Artists and Writers for Peace in the Middle East; Queens College Award for Excellence in Jewish Art, and from the Juilliard School, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 1995. At the 2001 American Dance Festival she received the award for “Lifetime Distinguished Teaching”.

Pearl Lang passed away in 2009.