Chamber Dance Company Archive: Dore Hoyer

Solo performer, choreographer, teacher, director

Born 12 December 1911, Desden Germany. Died 31 December 1967, Berlin, Germany.

Dore Hoyer began her dance and rhythmic training at Hellerau-Laxenburg School in Dresden in 1927. After passing the examination for dance teachers, she studied with Gret Palucca, and in 1933 she presented her first solo concert. She worked for a short time as a ballet mistress in Oldenburg, but returned to Dresden to become a member of Mary Wigman’s dance group in 1935. She took over the former Wigman School after World War II and formed her own dance group. The group gained notoriety, but Hoyer left to continue her solo work. From 1949 to 1951 Hoyer served as director of the Hamburg State Opera Ballet, but had greater success abroad. She presented a number of solo performances in South American and in 1957 made her debut with the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College. 1966 marked her last dance performance. She had no school––no income, and committed suicide in 1967. While Hoyer is less of a household name than many of her fellow modern dance artists, some historians believe her work emerged from a period of stagnating dance and set in motion innovations that underlay American modern and postmodern dance to this day.

Watch Dore Hoyer's work Affectos Humanos, as well as personal interviews with performers, at the Media Arcade in Vol. 7 of the Chamber Dance Company Archive (DVD UWDP 001 v.07).