​Nona Schurman

NONA SCHURMAN (1909-2016) joined the Humphrey-Weidman company in the late 1930s and remained a principal dancer until 1943. She was Assistant Professor Emeritus of SUNY Geneseo where in 1977 she received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in teaching (upon receiving a perfect score from her students). During her many years in New York City she was vice-president and head of the Humphrey-Weidman department of the New Dance Group studio, and taught modern technique and elementary and intermediate composition courses at the 92nd Street Y. She also had her own studio company. She was an active member of the Board of Directors of the Dance Notation Bureau in the 1950s to mid-‘60s.

 

Ms. Schurman was artist-in-residence at Illinois State University, guest teacher at the North Carolina School of the Arts, head of the dance department at Interlochen Arts Academy, and spent a year teaching at the State Dance School in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an authority on the Humphrey-Weidman style and technique and co-author with Sharon Leigh Clark of the textbook Modern Dance Fundamentals, a collection of dance exercises based on Humphrey-Weidman principles. A revised in 1991, her second edition was self-published in 2010. Ms. Schurman was born in Oxford, Nova Scotia, Canada. She retired in Geneseo, NY, and lived there until her passing in 2016 at the grand age of 106.