Holm’s biographer Walter Sorrell noted that, though she lived in New York City from 1931 until her death in 1992, Holm seemed to prefer her “splendid isolation” in Colorado.

Marshall Brooks, a set designer and photographer who married Carolyn Durand Brooks (one of Holm's early company members) photographed Hanya in some of these more relaxed, personal moments. Brooks' photographs provide a rare glimpse of Holm not just as “the world-renowned modern dance choreographer and educator,” but also as a hiker of mountains, a jokester, and a friend.