Ann Barzel (December 13, 1905 – February 12, 2007) was an American writer, critic and lecturer on dance.

Biography

In 1920, Barzel moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Her first Chicago dance teachers were Mark Turbyfill and

Adolph Bolm Adolph Rudolphovich Bolm (russian: Адольф Рудольфович Больм; September 25, 1884 – April 16, 1951) was a Russian-born American ballet dancer and choreographer, of German descent. Biography Bolm graduated from the Russi ...

. From about 1931 to 1943, Barzel performed as a dancer. She studied various styles of dance in Chicago, New York, London, and Paris with

Michel Fokine Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian Choreography (dance), choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a pro ...

, Alexandre Volinine,

Doris Humphrey Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 – December 29, 1958) was an American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second g ...

, the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Ne ...

, Vecheslav Swoboda and

Nicholas Legat Nikolai Gustavovich Legat (russian: Никола́й Густа́вович Лега́т) (30 December 1869, Moscow – 24 January 1937, London) was a premier dancer with the Russian Imperial Ballet from 1888 to 1914, and also with the Mar ...

. She danced in productions of the

Chicago Civic Opera The Civic Opera Company (1922–1931) was a Chicago company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in the Auditorium Theatre from 1922 to 1928, and three seasons at its own Civic Opera House from 1929 to 1931 before falling victim to financia ...

Ballet and danced with a group directed by Berenice Holmes. In the 1940s, Barzel became a lecturer on dance, as well as a teacher of dance technique. She lectured on dance history at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate and graduat ...

, and many other institutions. During this time, she was also making a regular career out of reviewing dance, theatre, and nightclub events in Chicago. She was dance critic for the ''

Chicago Times The ''Chicago Times'' was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the ''Chicago Herald'', to become the ''Chicago Times-Herald''. The ''Times-Herald'' effectively disappeared in 1901 when it merged with the ''Chicago Recor ...

'', 1946-1950, when she joined '' Chicago's American'' (a newspaper later renamed ''

Chicago Today The ''Chicago American'' was an afternoon newspaper published in Chicago, under various names until its dissolution in 1974. History The paper's first edition came out on July 4, 1900, as '' Hearst's Chicago American''. It became the ''Morning ...

''), 1951-1974. Barzel also wrote for

Dance Magazine ''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' has multiple sister publications, including '' Poin ...

for 40 years, covering dance events in the Midwest for the magazine. She wrote for the

Lerner Newspapers Lerner Newspapers was a chain of weekly newspapers. Founded by Leo Lerner, the chain was a force in community journalism in Chicago from 1926 to 2005, and called itself "the world's largest newspaper group". In its heyday, Lerner published 54 ...

(Chicago weekly) from 1974 through 2003, for Ballet Review, Ballet Annual, Dance News, and for various other international dance publications. Barzel was a founder of the Ballet Guild of Chicago. In 1979, she was granted the Governor's Award for service to the arts. She was placed on the lifetime honors list by the Chicago Dance Arts Coalition in 1986, was recipient of the 1994 Vaslav Nijinsky Medal sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, and was sole honoree at the 1995 "Toast" to the Cultural Center, sponsored by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs.

References

Sources

*Dunning, Jennifer- February 21, 2007: "Ann Barzel, 101, Dies; a Writer Whose Passion Was Dance" https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/arts/dance/21barzel.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/D/Dancing New York Times *The Newberry Library- "Remembering Ann Barzel": https://web.archive.org/web/20081203002708/http://www.newberry.org/media/AnnBarzel.html

External links

Ann Barzel Dance Research Collection
at

the Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

Ann Barzel Papers
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barzel, Ann 1905 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American women writers American centenarians American dance critics American women journalists University of Chicago staff Women centenarians 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women