The Translators
Claire Holt (1901–1970) was a pioneer of dance ethnography before it had a name (she described herself as a “choreologist”) and a Javanese dance practitioner. Born in Riga, Latvia, she became part of a dedicated network of Euro-American scholars and arts practitioners who sought to understand East Indies culture from the inside. Colleagues included dance scholars Curt Sachs and Beryl De Zoete; anthropologists Franziska Boas, Ray Birdwhistell, Jane Belo, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson; ethnomusicologists Alan Lomax and Colin McPhee; and painters Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies. Holt went on to hold many important yet eclectic posts, including worker at the American Museum of Natural History; founder of the East Indies Institute (later renamed the Southeast Asia Inst
