Biographical Note - Larry Warren
Born in Brooklyn in 1932, Larry Warren grew up in the Los Angeles area where he studied dance with Karoun Tootikan and with Ruth St. Denis at her studio. Warren performed with the Concert Dance Group out of the St. Denis Studio and graduated in 1955 from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in theater arts. After graduation, Warren continued training with St. Denis, as well as Bella Lewitzky and James Truitte. Warren also studied for a time in New York at the Martha Graham School and under ballet master Benjamin Harkarvy. He returned to UCLA for graduate work and completed his master's thesis on Lester Horton. This thesis became the seed of Warren's first book, Lester Horton: Modern Dance Pioneer (1977). A second edition of the book was published in 1991.
In 1971, Warren joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park, and later that year assisted Dorothy Madden in founding the Maryland Dance Theater. Warren choreographed for Maryland Dance Theater, serving as associate director and later as director until 1988 when the company disbanded. Warren's second biography, Anna Sokolow: The Rebellious Spirit, was first published in 1991 and revised for a second edition in 1998. For the book, Warren was given a De la Torre Bueno special citation award from the Dance Perspectives Foundation. He retired from the University of Maryland in 1995, but continued to serve as Professor Emeritus of Dance. Warren's contributions to dance and dance study were recognized with an award from the Metropolitan Dance Association in 1982, and in 1986, he was the co-recipient with his wife, Anne Warren, of the Maryland Council for Dance's Outstanding Service to Dance in Maryland award. In 2001, he was presented with the Pola Nirenska Lifetime Achievement Award in Dance from the Washington Performing Arts Society. Warren died on December 9, 2009.