Through her cultural influence on dance, as well as her impact on reinventing dance itself, Anna Sokolow has gone down in history as one of the greatest modern dancers. Her Jewish roots were a huge basis for the dances she performed and the messages she tried to convey, which is significant to me and my similar religious views. It was important for dancers and choreographers to express what they believe in and spread their message in the world of the arts, and Sokolow was one of those who did so with great success. Through her unique movement style, her illuminating piece Rooms, and her personal connection to Judaism, Anna Sokolow's inspirations and works come together to address an important issue in the Jewish society and culture of her time. Anna Sokolow was born on February 9, 1910, in Hartford, Connecticut. His mother, Sarah, and father, Samuel, were hard-working immigrants from Belarus. At the age of about ten she began attending dance courses at the Emanuele Sisterhood of Personal Service. Anna dedicated all her time to training in dance and began to fall in love with dance. She had such an innate talent for dance that she eventually decided to leave the Sisterhood and begin training at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Here, dancers received first-class hands-on training from some of the best choreographers and names in dance such as Blanche Talmud, Bird Larson, Martha Graham and Lois Horst. Sokolow really began to develop his ideas about movement and how it could be emphasized and used to portray different things in different ways (Warren). In 1929 Sokolow began her dance career by joining Martha Graham's dance company. He spent a lot of time learning and studying with Graham or...... middle of paper ...... and the importance of Jewish culture. She, along with many other protest choreographers of the time, used dance as a means to spread their message to the world, while others simply treated dance as a form of beauty and entertainment. Modern dance was an excellent means of political protest and denunciation of injustice; and was a key player in spreading awareness of Judaism throughout the dance world, as well as exposing some of its horrors to the world during her time. Sokolow was able to do this because of her ability to truly connect with her Jewish influences and inspirations in order to choreograph unique and precise movements into pieces that allowed the viewer to make some sort of connection with these powerful issues in culture and Jewish society; whether these connections are personal or simply determined by Sokolow's creative ingenuity in his choreography.