Betty Lind Papers

Betty Lind was born on March 2, 1913 in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Louis and Anna Lieberman Lind. After graduating from Eastern District High School in 1928, Lind worked as a doctor's office assistant and nurse until 1932.

In 1932 Lind began her career as a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Over the course of the next thirty years, Lind taught modern dance in a number of places, including Douglass College in New Jersey, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and the New York Academy of Ballet. In addition, Lind served as the president and member of the board of directors for Theatre Dance, Inc. for five years, performing at the YMHA-92nd Street and the Hunter College Playhouse. Among the dancers with whom she studied were Doris Batcheller Humphrey (1895-1958), Charles Weidman (1901-1975), Hanya Holm (1893-1992), Lester Iradell Horton (1906-1953), Lotte Goslar (1907-1997), Jose Arcadio Limon (1808-1972), Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (1919-2009), and Louis Horst (1884-1964)  She also studied ballet with Nenette Charisse (1914-2000), Helene Platova, and Florence Lessing (1916-2002).

In 1963 Lind received her B.A. cum laude from Brooklyn College in New York.  She enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 1963-64 (on campus) and worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Dance. She received her M.A. from UCLA in 1966.

In 1964 Lind was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor in Physical Education at Oberlin College, with an emphasis on dance.  During her time at Oberlin, Lind taught courses in Beginning Technique, Choreography, Esthetics of Dance, and History of Dance. In addition, she served as artistic director and choreographer for the Oberlin Modern Dance Company. Lind also conducted master classes in modern dance at the Theater Dance Workshop of St. Croix during the summers of 1967, 1972 and 1973. In 1969 Lind received an H.H. Powers Travel Grant to explore dance throughout the Far East.

In her first several years at Oberlin, Lind worked tirelessly to get others to recognize that modern dance is an art form. Her beliefs clashed with the approach taken by Oberlin of dividing the courses between the Theater Arts department and the Physical Education department. In conjunction with fellow dance instructors Gretchen de Scot Moran (b. 1945) and Brenda Way (b. 1942), Lind founded the Committee on Modern Dance and began laying the foundation for a unified program.

Ultimately promoted to Associate Professor of Dance in 1972, Lind retired from Oberlin in 1974 in part because of health problems. She returned to New York and continued her work in dance. Following her retirement Lind wrote prolifically, both articles on dance as well as short fiction. Several of her articles appeared in Dance Observer.

Lind passed away on August 10, 1994 in New York.

Note written by Caitlin Condell.