Life Mary Wigman

portrait of mary wigman dancing ernst ludwig kirchner

karoline sophie marie wiegmann born in hanover, germany.

she came dance comparatively late after seeing 3 students of Émile jaques-dalcroze, aimed approach music through movement using 3 equally-important elements: solfège, improvisation , own system of movements, eurhythmics. key experience solo concert grete wiesenthal.

in 1913, introduced rudolf von laban , following lead, worked upon technique based in contrasts of movement; expansion , contraction, pulling , pushing. during first world war worked laban s assistant in leipzig.

in 1918, had nervous breakdown.

in 1920, wigman offered post of ballet mistress @ dresden state opera, but, after taking residence in hotel in dresden , beginning teach dance classes while awaiting appointment, learned position had been awarded else.

in school year 1920/1921, wigman instead started own dance school, became known dresden central school or mary wigman-schule , centre of new, expressionist dance. rivalry , competition between new school , old schools of dance in dresden emerged, palucca school of dance.

mary wigman, dance studio, west berlin 1959

her students , collaborators europe included yvonne georgi, hanya holm, harald kreutzberg, gret palucca, max terpis, irena linn, elisabet wiener, sonia revid, margarethe wallmann, inge weiss, , meta vidmar in 1930 established first school of modern dance in slovenia. opera-dancer ursula cain (*1927), @ age of more 80 years still seen on stage , tv dancing in cross-genre projects dancing time heike hennig, student of mary wigman.

mary wigman toured united states in 1930 company of dancers; school founded disciples in new york city in 1931. choreography inspired communist dance troupes in 1930s in new york city work in united states credited protegee hanya holm, , hanya s students alwin nikolais , joanne woodbury. student , protegee of wigman s, margret dietz, taught in america 1953 until 1972.

the mary wigman-schule existed 1920 until 1942 , continued operate under nazi rule in world war ii, when obeyed rule of government , fired jewish dancers schools in germany.

what had been mary wigman-schule started again after war dore hoyer. hoyer , school created dances käthe kollwitz performed in dresden in 1946.

wigman taught again in leipzig in 1948. 1950 until death in 1973, taught @ studio in west berlin, susanne linke among students.

she died on 18 september 1973 in berlin, aged 86.

postage stamp marks 100th year of wigman s birth