Mary Wigman

Mary Wigman was a famous dancer.

She lived in Germany. She made new ways to move. She did not wear special dance shoes.

Her dance was very strong. She used her body to show deep feelings. Sometimes she danced to drums or gongs.

Many people learned from her. She even had a school in Dresden. She taught over a thousand students.

Her work changed how people dance today. She was a very important leader in art.

Mary Wigman was a famous German dancer.

She was a leader in modern dance. She helped start a new style called expressionist dance. This style used movement to show deep feelings.

Most dancers wore special shoes called pointe shoes. Wigman did not use them. She wanted to move freely. She studied with a teacher named Rudolf von Laban. He taught her to use contrasts in movement. She would push and pull. She would expand and contract.

Her dances were often very powerful. She did not always use music. Sometimes she danced to drums or gongs. Other times, she danced in silence. This made her work feel very special to people.

Mary taught many students. In Dresden, she had a school. By 1931, she had over 1,200 students in many cities. Some of her students even moved to the United States. They started new dance groups there.

Her work changed the world of art. She showed that dance could be a way to share the human experience.

Mary Wigman was a famous German dancer and choreographer.

She helped lead a new style called expressionist dance. This type of dance focused on showing deep human feelings through movement. Wigman was a very important figure in the history of modern dance. Her work became a major part of the culture in Weimar Germany. People loved how she brought big, deep experiences to the stage.

To create her dances, Wigman used special ways to move her body. She studied with a teacher named Rudolf von Laban. He taught her to use contrasts in her motions. She practiced moving by expanding and contracting her body. She also used movements like pulling and pushing. Unlike many dancers, she did not wear pointe shoes. She wanted her movement to be free and independent. She often danced without any music at all. Sometimes she only used the sound of drums or gongs.

Mary was born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann in 1886. She grew up in Hanover, which was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. As a young person, she lived in many places like England and the Netherlands. She began her serious dance studies a bit late in life. In 1913, she went to the Rudolf von Laban School on Monte Verità in Switzerland. She studied there until 1919. This training helped her find her own unique way to dance.

In 1920, Wigman opened her own modern dance school in Dresden.

Her school became very successful in a short time. By 1927, she had 360 students in Dresden alone. Her influence spread to many other German cities like Berlin and Munich. Even more amazing, her students opened branches in places like New York City. By 1931, more than 1,200 students were learning her ideas. Some of her most famous students included Gret Palucca and Hanya Holm.

Many different artists were inspired by Wigman's powerful work. The painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner even made a painting of her called *Totentanz der Mary Wigman*.

Her ideas even traveled across the ocean to the United States. Students like Hanya Holm helped bring her style to American dancers. Her work helped start new groups like the New Dance Group in the 1930s. Today, her old school building in Dresden is used by dancers. It is now called Villa Wigman for Dance.

Mary Wigman was a revolutionary German dancer and choreographer.

She pioneered expressionist dance, a style known as Ausdruckstanz in Germany. This movement focused on expressing deep existential experiences through the human body. Wigman was also a leader in dance therapy and movement training. Unlike traditional ballet dancers, she did not use pointe shoes. She wanted movement to be free and independent of music. Her work became a central part of the culture during the Weimar Republic era.

Wigman developed her unique technique through specific physical principles. She studied under Rudolf von Laban at the Monte Verità school in Switzerland. Laban taught a system based on the contrast of movements. Wigman used expansion and contraction to create tension. She also utilized pulling and pushing motions to define space. Often, she chose to dance without melodic music. Instead, she used the rhythmic sounds of drums or gongs. Sometimes, she performed in total silence to focus on pure movement.

Her career progressed through several distinct stages of development. She began by studying rhythmic gymnastics with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in Hellerau. However, she felt dissatisfied because that style made dance secondary to music. In 1913, she moved toward more independent expression at the Laban School. After 1919, she entered her most successful period in Dresden. She opened a modern dance school on Bautzner Strasse in 1920. This school eventually became a major center for the independent dance scene.

Wigman's life and career were shaped by significant historical shifts. She was born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann in 1886 in Hanover. She grew up traveling through England and the Netherlands. Her first public dances, such as *Hexentanz I*, appeared in Munich. During the First World War, she served as Laban's assistant in Switzerland. The rise of the National Socialist party in 1933 changed her school significantly. New laws against racial overcrowding forced many of her students to emigrate. Wigman herself faced difficult political pressures during this time.

The scale of Wigman's influence was immense during her peak years. By 1927, she taught 360 students in Dresden alone. Her influence reached a massive scale through her former students. By 1931, more than 1,200 students were being taught at various branches. These branches were located in cities like Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg. Her ideas even reached the United States via her student Hanya Holm. Wigman's school in Dresden was so important that it served as a rehearsal stage for the Saxon State Opera.

Many notable artists and students were connected to her work. The expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner captured her essence in his painting, *Totentanz der Mary Wigman*.

Her students included famous dancers like Gret Palucca and Yvonne Georgi. In the United States, her proteges Alwin Nikolais and Joan Woodbury continued her legacy. Critics often described her compositions as tense, introspective, and sombre. Yet, they also noted a sense of radiance within her darkest works.

Wigman's legacy connects dance to broader social and political systems. In the 1930s, her students helped start the New Dance Group in New York. This group used dance as a gateway for social change. However, her work was also caught in the politics of the Third Reich. Nazi leaders saw Ausdruckstanz as a way to promote German values. They viewed it as a shield against foreign cultural influences. This allowed her style to be used as a form of state propaganda. Today, her former school in Dresden is preserved as the Villa Wigman for Dance.