Background
Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann was born on 13 November 1886 in Hanover, Germany.
(Book by Wigman, Mary)
Book by Wigman, Mary
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081954079X/?tag=2022091-20
(Book by Wigman, Mary)
Book by Wigman, Mary
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0819560375/?tag=2022091-20
(Book by Mary Wigman)
Book by Mary Wigman
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8492355115/?tag=2022091-20
Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann was born on 13 November 1886 in Hanover, Germany.
The daughter of a manufacturer, Wigman obtained her secondary education at schools in Germany, England, and Switzerland.
Despite the objections of her parents, Wigman enrolled in Jaques-Dalcroze's school in Dresden-Hellerau in 1911.
During a visit to Amsterdam she attended a dance performance by students of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, originator of the system of musical instruction known as eurythmics.
On the advice of the German expressionist painter Emil Nolde she went to Ascona, Switzerland, in 1913 to enroll in the summer course given by Rudolf von Laban, whose theories helped pave the way for the modern dance movement.
In 1914 she gave her first student solo performance.
After leaving the Laban school, Wigman went into solitude in the mountains of Switzerland.
The age of 25 was late to start dancing, and the great teacher and choreographer Rudolf Laban told her she would never be a dancer.
Here she began to create a series of solo and group works that first caused astonishment but later brought her fervent admiration. Wigman composed dances about war, death, and evil.
Though she had dances about happiness and love, these, too, were serious in tone.
Wigman believed that dance should be expressive rather than pretty.
By the mid-1926 Wigman became known as the leading exponent of the new "Ausdruckstanz, " or Expressionist Dance, in Germany.
In 1920 Mary Wigman opened a school in Dresden, which soon became the focal point of German modern dance.
At the school she trained dancers and experimented with choreography.
Among her pupils were Holm, Georgi, Palucca, Wall, and Kreutzberg.
Wigman first appeared in New York in 1930.
For several years she toured with her company and wherever she went aroused discussion with her strange, new works.
During the following years she toured extensively, alone and with her troupe.
She made her London debut in 1928 and her triumphant United States debut in 1930, followed by two more United States tours between 1931 and 1933.
She had become the center of a national movement and was honored officially in the early 1936 by the German government. The Nazi authorities, however, considered her to be a leftist and her dances to be decadent.
They took her school away from her, but allowed her to teach in Leipzig during World War II.
In 1950 she established a new school in Dahlem, a suburb of Berlin.
Although Wigman's style was often characterized as tense, introspective, and sombre, critics of the time described the quality of ecstasy and radiance to be found beneath even her "darkest" compositions.
In her early performances Wigman danced at times to no music at all or to the accompaniment of flutes or percussion instruments, such as African drums, Oriental gongs, or cymbals.
Her most important productions for German opera houses include Handel's "Saul" (Mannheim, 1954), Orff's "Carmina Burana" (Mannheim, 1955), and Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printemps" (Municipal Opera, Berlin Festival, 1957).
Mary Wigman was a major influence on American modern dance, largely through the work of Hanya Holm and other disciples who kept alive, developed, and extended her concepts.
She opened a school there which became a meeting place for modern dance enthusiasts from all over the world well into the 1966.
She worked intensively, creating dances and developing her unique expressionist or "absolute" style of dance, which was independent of any literary or interpretive content.
(Book by Wigman, Mary)
(Book by Wigman, Mary)
(Book by Mary Wigman)
She came to be recognized not only for her technical innovations but also for her humanism and heroic grandeur.
During World War II the Germans confined Wigman to her school in Leipzig and forced her to teach ballet.
Wigman composed dances about war, death, and evil.
Though she had dances about happiness and love, these, too, were serious in tone.
Wigman believed that dance should be expressive rather than pretty.
Ballet, she felt, with its rounded, flowing movements, could express only tender, joyous moods.
Because she wanted to express violent and tragic feelings, she had to use movements that were strong, abrupt, and angular; instead of sweetly melodic music, Wigman danced to the sound of drums, gongs, and cymbals.
