Mary Wigman

“There has always been only one theme around which my thoughts circled
like moths around a light: Dance.”

Subiksha S
18SDMB01
Early Life

 Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann (1886–1973) in Hanover, Germany.

 Her education was through Germany, England and Switzerland.
 On a visit to Amsterdam, she attended a dance performance by three
students of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. She was fascinated with the way the
performers portrayed dance as an expression of life.
 in 1911, she got enrolled in the Jaques-Dalcroze's school in Dresden-
Hellerau.
 In 1913, she travelled to Ascona, Switzerland to register for the summer
course given by Rudolf von Laban and was his teaching assistant.
 Post her training with Laban she went on to curate and conceive a style
of her own – New German Dance.
 She was a Dancer, choreographer and teacher who was one of the
pioneers in the establishment of modern dance in Germany in the 1920s
and 1930s.
Dance thought and technique
 Wigman was trained in ballet as well as gymnastics under Dalcroze and
Laban.
 She felt restricted to perform under predefined and specific norms only.
 Her dance is referred to as AUSDRUCKSTANZ – expressionist dance or
dance of expressionism. This also points toward the fact that she was part of
the expressionism movement.
 Her themes of dance centred upon universal themes apart from individual
and personal experiences.
 She was courageous and rather bold in staging dark themes without fancy
and flamboyant costumes and the usage of masks.
 https://youtu.be/AtLSSuFlJ5c
 Her themes also included many antiwar messages. Her production –
TOTENMAL is one example.
 Her understanding of dance was that self expression has a direct relationship
with psychologically oriented creativity.
 Body’s ability to move could make or break the dance.
 Despite her affiliation towards death and such darker concepts her works in her
later years seem more normal, natural and non - experimental.
 Her dance technique was everything that was not balletic movement. It
involved kneeling, crouching, crawling, creeping, etc.
 No formulated technique as such, but over the years a system developed.
 A book speaks of her technique and exercise regime that has been notated in the
Laban notation system – Die Frankfurter Seminarreihe in Wigman –
Technique.
 It mentions 5 major dance technique’s –
1. Striding and Sliding
2. Springs, Vibrations, bouncing
3. Momentums and oscillations
4. Falling and dropping
5. Tensions: relaxed, sustained and motor tensions.
 She has experimented with dance by performing without music and just with
percussion.
 Her dance technique focused more on rhythm.
 Neglected the importance of a fixed technique as such and believed in
more involuntary movement as expression.
 There are three elements that gave dance life
 – time, strength and space.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37sEaUhFzpI
Career
 1919, she conducted her first professional solo concert in Berlin
 1920, she opened her own dance school ‘Dresden Central School’ in
Dresden. Some of them include - Hanya Holm, Yvonne Georgi, Gret
Palucca and Harald Kreutzberg.
 1923, her dance troupe gave its first dance performance. In 1928, she
made her first trip to U.K. followed by a tour to America in 1930.
Between 1931 and 1933, she conducted two more tours of the U.S. This
was the primary reason she influenced modern dance in America. One
of her students, Hanya Hola, helped in the establishment of modern
dance schools in America.
 Second World War put her career on hold, but post 1945 she resumed
teaching in Leipzig and West Berlin.
 She also choregraphed for Municipal Opera in Berlin and National Theatre
in Mannhcim.
 Her notable works include – Summer Dance, Witch Dance,
Dance of Sorrow, Woman Dances,
Bright Queen, Festive Rhythm.
 She died on 18th September, 1973
n West Berlin.