Mimi Kagan
American dancer (1918–1999)
Mimi Kagan (1918–1999; née Miriam Gabrilovna Kagan, and also known as Miriam Odza, Mimi Kagan Kim) was a Russia-born American modern dancer, choreographer, educator and dance journalist. She was the founder of the avant-garde Mimi Kagan Dance Group and was active and influential in modern dance and choreography in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Princeton, New Jersey and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Early life
Kagan was born in Samara in the Russian Empire and moved to the United States as a young child. Her family was Jewish.
Career
New York City
Kagan trained for dance under Hanya Holm, one of the "Big Four" founders of American modern dance. She later became part of the Hanya Holm Dance Company. Kagan danced in Trend (1938), Holm's first United States performance. Other dancers in the Holm company included Louise Kloepper and Henrietta Greenhood (later known as Eve Gentry).
Kagan was the dance director at Henry Street Settlement Playhouse (now Abrons Arts Center) in New York City.
San Francisco Bay Area
She later moved to Berkeley, California, and worked as a co-director of Dance Associates.
The public source identifies “Mimi Kagan” as american dancer (1918–1999). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mimi, Kagan and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mimi Kagan”, the useful work is to connect “american dancer (1918–1999)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q107228530. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1999 and 1938.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mimi Kagan”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mimi Kagan primary sources, Mimi Kagan archive and Mimi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mimi Kagan”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Mimi Kagan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.