We prove an equivariant form of Slodkowski's theorem that every holomo
rphic motion of a subset of the extended complex plane C extends to a
holomorphic motion of C . As a consequence we prove that every holomor
phic map of the unit disc into Teichmuller space lifts to a holomorphi
c map into the space of Beltrami forms. We use this lifting theorem to
study the Teichmuller metric.