My parents [Ina and Herbert Hahn] were artistic visionaries. My mother was a famous modern dancer, one of the pioneers of early modern dance. She worked with Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. My mother was especially devoted to Humphrey’s teachings, philosophy and technique. It was free flowing, movement generated with the natural world as its inspiration. She danced barefoot outdoors in the fields…very much grounded in the earth.”
“There was lots of ecstasy in [my mother’s] dance and joy…[based in] teamwork. Everybody was equal. That made it much more community-based, more of an ensemble. That’s the legacy I have inherited.” And with that energy as her driving force, Lisa Hahn is strengthening the arts, culture and the entire community of greater Cape Ann.
Windhover was created by Hahn’s parents in the ’60s, at first as a girl’s camp then a not-for-profit in the ’80s. Its boulder- strewn landscape of barns and cottages was destined to become an arts center. The Hahns knew this instinctively. From its inception, Windhover’s mission encompassed dance, theater and music. Music will partner with classical guitarist Brendan Evans who founded the Cape Ann Guitar Society (which launched at Windhover in 2024). Evans is transcribing several Bach’s pieces to the guitar. The movement element is comprised of New York-based Alison Cook Beatty Dance along with local dancers who performed with Ina Hahn’s company. Lisa hopes to resurrect one of her mother’s Bach-inspired pieces of choreography. “It’s one example of bringing the arts together and collaborating more. In a way that’s not just improvisational but that has structure and meaning to it.” Behind the scenes at Windhover is another dimension of collaboration: an extraordinary and ongoing artist residency program. Each week, a theater, dance company or music group is on campus developing new work. While audiences may be outside enjoying a production under the Center’s performance tent, inside the rehearsal spaces are artists engaged in the creative process. “Nurturing creativity and supporting the arts in various ways is really important to me,” One of the buildings on the campus of the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts. Lisa Hahn, since Ina’s death in 2016, has expanded her mother’s—and Humphrey’s— shared artistic passion and philosophy by infusing every new endeavor with a connection to the natural world; grounded in the very earth they dance upon, where artists and the community collaborate and celebrate as equals on a shared stage. Every facet of Windhover speaks to this commitment to diversity and equality. It’s as if the land itself communicated an unspoken doctrine with the Hahns that Lisa still fulfills today.
Dance, theater, music and poetry all thrive at Windhover as do Shakespeare workshops for children, through a partnership with Lanes Coven Theater. (The company also performs its season at Windhover.) This year Lisa is launching a Bach Festival which will highlight dance and music. “Bach names all of his violin and cello suites after dances…so we’re bringing together musicians and dancers to speak about those forms and enact them so people really understand them…” Musicians affiliated with Boston Conservatory and Berklee School of Music will partner with classical guitarist Brendan Evans who founded the Cape Ann Guitar Society (which launched at Windhover in 2024). Evans is transcribing several Bach’s pieces to the guitar. The movement element is comprised of New York-based Alison Cook Beatty Dance along with local dancers who performed with Ina Hahn’s company. Lisa hopes to resurrect one of her mother’s Bach-inspired pieces of choreography. “It’s one example of bringing the arts together and collaborating more. In a way that’s not just improvisational but that has structure and meaning to it.”
Behind the scenes at Windhover is another dimension of collaboration: an extraordinary and ongoing artist residency program. Each week, a theater, dance company or music group is on campus developing new work. While audiences may be outside enjoying a production under the Center’s performance tent, inside the rehearsal spaces are artists engaged in the creative process. “Nurturing creativity and supporting the arts in various ways is really important to me,” Lisa shares. “I’m trying to do more open rehearsals so that the audience and the community of Cape Ann can be engaged in the process.”
An art sanctuary in every sense of the term, Windhover is committed to diversity, welcoming artists and audiences exploring all mediums. In August 2025, the Center debuts a Bluegrass Festival, once again in partnership with the Cape Ann Guitar Society. (The Bach Festival will perform intermittently throughout the summer as well.) And likely to return are Windhover’s signature quarry dance series, an extraordinary example of how nature and the arts meld together. “The beauty of that!,” Lisa exclaims, “I mean talk about partnerships! It’s a partnership to get people motivated to see the natural world in their own community.” Each series involves an esteemed dance company choreographing a site-specific work within the uneven topography of the quarry. Lisa works with a different quarry each season and the audience journeys into the woods for the performance. “The beauty is that people engage with the natural world, the amphitheater of the quarry becoming the stage…”
Lisa Hahn moved to Cape Ann when she was one and lives her life in “kinship” with the natural world as her parents did. “I grew up here, it’s in my blood…and so much of what I do is intrinsically linked” to the community. “I go to Pigeon Cove Harbor and talk with the fishermen every week about their lives and what matters to them. That’s as important to me as meeting an artist in their studio. I find that authenticity, people caring about what they do—in an honest, simple way, very compelling here.…I honor this earth and this place.” And her legacy.
