A portrait photograph of Martha Hill. Hill was born in East Palestine, Ohio in 1900. She attended the Battle Creek Normal School of Physical Education in Battle Creek, graduating in 1920. She took over the position of dance instructor, teaching ballet and Swedish gymnastics for the next three years. In 1923, she was hired as dance instructor at Kansas State Teachers College. Hill taught there for three years, moving to New York City in 1926. In 1929, she completed a BS degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and began teaching high school students at the Lincoln School of Teachers College. She was hired to teach at New York University in the Physical Education Department of the School of Education in 1930, soon becoming Director of Dance. Hill received her master's degree from New York University in 1941. In 1948 she formed a School of the Dance at Connecticut College calling it the "Connecticut College School of the Dance". In 1951, William Schuman, president of The Juilliard School, hired Hill to be the first Director of Dance.[1] Schuman and Hill had the bold new concept of creating a training ground for dancers that would be equally split between ballet and modern dance. Hill remained the director of dance at Juilliard until 1985.
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