Koner, Pauline (1912–2001)
Koner, Pauline (1912–2001)
American concert dancer and choreographer. Name variations: Pauline Mahler. Born Pauline Koner, 1912, in New York, NY; died Feb 8, 2001, in New York, NY; dau. of Samuel Koner (lawyer); m. Fritz Mahler (conductor), 1939 (died 1973).
Danced with the Fokine Ballet (mid-1920s); performed on tour with Michio Ito; created many solo works which she performed in recitals, among them Upheaval (1931), Two Laments: For the Living, for the Dead (1931), Spanish Impressions (1931), and Jitterbug Sketches (1945); choreographer noted for powerful solos, became permanent guest-artist for company of José Limón (1949), where she created roles in such major works as Limón's Moor's Pavane (1949) and Doris Humphrey's Ruins and Visions (1953); also was involved with La Malinche (1949), The Visitation (1953), The Exiles (1953) and premieres of Humphrey's The Story of Mankind (1949), Lament for Ignácio Sánchez Mejóas (1949), and Ritmo Jondo (1953); honored Humphrey with her best-known piece of choreography, an elegiac 30-minute solo "The Farewell" (1962); headed the Pauline Koner Dance Consort (1976–82). Also choreographed Allegretto (1930), Visions (1930), Spanish Impressions (1931), Dances of Longing (1934), Three Soviet Songs (1939), Love Song (1945), Cassandra (1953), The Shining Dark (1958), Elements of Performing (1963), and Solitary Song (1975).
See also autobiography Solitary Song (Duke U. Press, 1989).