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Carl Wolz
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Carl Wolz, born in 1932, a teacher, scholar and dance festival organizer who sought to promote cooperation between Asian and Western dance communities, died on Jan. 2, 2002. He was 69 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was cancer, said his brother, Lee Wolz.
Although Mr. Wolz studied and taught ballet, modern dance and dance notation, it was his interest in Asian dance that shaped his career and led him to help organize the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and later the World Dance Alliance, devoted to bringing together dancers and scholars of many nations to promote their art and preserve cultural heritages.
In 1962 Mr. Wolz received a fellowship from the East-West Center in Honolulu to study Asian dance at the University of Hawaii. He expected to stay for two years but remained for 20, earning a master's degree in Asian studies and then directing the dance program at the university. He also helped to establish the Hawaii State Dance Council.
Mr. Wolz went to Hong Kong in 1982 as part of a team of consultants that established the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. The next year he became its first dean of dance. He also organized dance festivals in Hong Kong, and the international festival there in 1990 led to the establishment of the World Dance Alliance. Mr. Wolz was president of the alliance's Asia-Pacific division and became the executive director of its executive council in 1995.
He taught at the Japan Women's College of Physical Education from 1993-98, and after returning to the United States in 1998 he taught at Washington University in St. Louis and Barnard College in Manhattan.
A native of St. Louis, Mr. Wolz studied dance there and in New York at the Juilliard School. After serving in the Army in the Korean War, he attended the University of Chicago, earning a bachelor's degree in art history in 1959.
He choreographed and notated dances at the institutions where he taught. He also published scholarly articles on Asian dance as well as two books: "Bugaku: Japanese Court Dance" and "Chinese Classical Dance." He received awards from the East-West Center, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the University of Chicago and the Congress on Research in Dance, and was a fellow of the International Council of Kinetography Laban, a dance notation organization.
Dances Carl taught include A Hilo Au, Benguet & Ifugao Dances, E Ka La, Ho' Opuka e Ka La, Kagoshima Ohara Bushi, Kathi Naach, Liki Ringo Bushi, and Tanko Bushi.