{{Short description|American dancer, choreographer}} {{use mdy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Mimi Kagan | image = Mimi Kagan, in Watt solo.jpg | caption = Mimi Kagan, in Watt solo | other_names = Miriam Gabrilovna Odza,<br/>Miriam Odaz,<br/>Miriam Gabrilovna Kim,<br/>Mimi Kagan Kim | birth_name = Miriam Gabrilovna Kagan | birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|01|17}} | birth_place = Samara, Samara Oblast, Russian Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1999|02|22|1918|01|17}} | death_place = Oakland, California, U.S. | resting_place = Mountain View Cemetery | occupation = Dancer, educator, writer, choreographer | known_for = Modern dance | spouse = Theodore Odza (1940–1958; divorce),<br/>Earl Kim (1958–?; divorce) | children = 2 }} '''Mimi Kagan''' (1918–1999; née '''Miriam Gabrilovna Kagan''', and also known as '''Miriam Odza''', '''Mimi Kagan Kim''') was a Russia-born American modern dancer, choreographer, educator and dance journalist. She was the founder of the avant-garde Mimi Kagan Dance Group and was active and influential in modern dance and choreography in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Princeton, New Jersey and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
== Early life == Kagan was born in Samara in the Russian Empire and moved to the United States as a young child.<ref name="SFCTJ">{{Cite journal |date=1946 |title=Kagan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJYmAQAAIAAJ |journal=San Francisco Classroom Teachers Journal |volume=30 |page=13 |via=Google Books |number=1}}</ref> Her family was Jewish.<ref name="Wigman-2003">{{Cite book |last=Wigman |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ewBzwXhz_hMC |title=Liebe Hanya: Mary Wigman's Letters to Hanya Holm |date=2003 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-19074-3 |pages=36–37 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
== Career == === New York City === Kagan trained for dance under Hanya Holm, one of the "Big Four" founders of American modern dance. She later became part of the Hanya Holm Dance Company.<ref name="SFCTJ" /><ref name="Wigman-2003" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ingber |first=Judith Brin |date=June 23, 2021 |title=Modern Dance Performance in the United States |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dance-performance-in-united-states |access-date=2022-03-06 |website=Jewish Women's Archive }}</ref> Kagan danced in ''Trend'' (1938), Holm's first United States performance.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 4, 1973 |title=Hanya Holm Dance Concert Set at CC |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/58908142/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph |page=77 }}</ref> Other dancers in the Holm company included Louise Kloepper and Henrietta Greenhood (later known as Eve Gentry).<ref>{{Cite book |last=McPherson |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xWKpQ_-dPyUC |title=The Bennington School of the Dance: A History in Writings and Interviews |date=2013-06-13 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0295-0 |pages=117 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
Kagan was the dance director at Henry Street Settlement Playhouse (now Abrons Arts Center) in New York City.{{When|date=March 2022}}<ref name="The Central New Jersey Home News-1971">{{Cite news |date=October 22, 1971 |title=Local Arts: Abbey Simon, Bob and Ray, and New Beckett Work On Tap |pages=21 |work=The Central New Jersey Home News |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/316461901/ |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
=== San Francisco Bay Area === She later moved to Berkeley, California, and worked as a co-director of Dance Associates. She founded her own company, the Mimi Kagan Dance Group, and in 1947 also worked under the name the San Francisco Dance League alongside Anna Halprin.<ref name="The Central New Jersey Home News-1971" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 12, 1947 |title=Across the Bay |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/205501908/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=Oakland Tribune |page=72 }}</ref> She received an award from the San Francisco Arts Commission for dance presentation.<ref name="The Central New Jersey Home News-1971" /> She also taught dance at the California Labor School in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite web |title=Inventory of the California Labor School Collection, 1942 - 1957 |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0489n414/ |publisher=Online Archive of California |accessdate=5 March 2022}}</ref>
In 1957, the Mimi Kagan Dance Group was named as a "Communist group" by Herbert Philbrick.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Philbrick |first=Herbert A. |author-link=Herbert Philbrick |date=November 19, 1957 |agency=Herald Tribune Service |title=Reds Linked With Deaths of Students |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97131083/reds-linked-with-deaths-of-students/ |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Columbia Record }}</ref> In 1961, the House Un-American Activities Committee targeted and blacklisted the Mimi Kagan Dance Group as a "subversive organization", which was part of a list published in national newspapers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 8, 1964 |orig-date=December 1, 1961 |author=United States House of Representatives |title=Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/347841945/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=Casper Star-Tribune |pages=20–23 }}</ref>
=== Princeton, and later Cambridge === In 1971 and 1972, she collaborated with her second husband, the composer Earl Kim, on the work "Exercises en Route", which toured and featured text by Samuel Beckett, and the soprano soloist Benita Valente. The show had Kagan dancing and four other dancers from Boston Ballet, including Anamarie Sarazin, Eileen O'Reilly, Robert Steele and Anthony Williams.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steinberg |first=Michael |date=January 10, 1971 |title=Harvard's Kim Premiers His 'Exercises' Friday |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/435494944/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Boston Globe |page=A-72, A-75 }}</ref> In the 1970s, Kagan was a dance correspondent for ''The Boston Globe'' daily newspaper.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steinberg |first=Michael |date=March 8, 1973 |title=Critic Will Be Guest Artist of Concert Dance Company |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/435912588/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Boston Globe |page=23 }}</ref>
Kagan died in 1999 in Oakland, California, and is buried at the Mountain View Cemetery. Her students included Murray Louis,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kisselgoff |first=Anna |date=2005-12-17 |title=Savoring the Steps Behind His Dance |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/arts/dance/savoring-the-steps-behind-his-dance.html |access-date=2022-03-06 |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> and she designed choreography for Adrienne Hawkins.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Temin |first=Christine |date=November 7, 1985 |title=An Impulse Becomes Dance Career for Adrienne Hawkins |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/437684409/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=2022-03-07 |via=Newspapers.com |work=The Boston Globe |page=102 }}</ref> <gallery class="center" mode="packed" widths="124" heights="124"> File:Group shot, 1940s.jpg|with Ted Odza (c. 1940) File:Mimi Kagan Dance Group.jpg|Mimi Kagan Dance Group File:Earl and Mimi, unknown gathering, Princeton, 1966 or 1967.jpg|with Earl Kim (c. 1966) File:Four dancers.jpg|Dancers in "Exercises en Route" (c. 1970) </gallery>
== Personal life == Kagan was married twice, in 1940 to the sculptor Theodore Odza, and in 1958 to the composer Earl Kim. Both marriages ended in divorce.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WsflAAAAMAAJ |title=Harvard Bulletin |date=1970 |publisher=Harvard Bulletin, Incorporated |pages=41 |via=Google Books}}<br>- {{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Martin |date=1998-12-02 |title=Obituary: Earl Kim |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-earl-kim-1188605.html |access-date=2022-03-06 |work=The Independent }}<br>- {{Cite news |last= |date=1958-06-21 |title=Licenses Issued |pages=16 |work=Oakland Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97078387/marriage-of-kim-odza/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2022-03-07}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}} {{Commons cat|Mimi Kagan}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kagan, Mimi}} Category:1918 births Category:1999 deaths Category:People from Samara Category:Expressionist choreographers Category:Expressionist dancers Category:American modern dancers Category:20th-century American dancers Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Journalists from Berkeley, California