Influences and training

Wigman was first inspired to dance after seeing some of Jaques Dalcroze's students perform in 1910 in Amsterdam. After this she protested against her parents and enrolled in Dalcroze's school, which specialized in rhythmic gymnastics. She trained there for approximately two years and then with the encouragement of Emil Nolde, who was an expressionist painter, went to Switzerland and took summer lessons with Laban in 1913. Wigman found she enjoyed this style of dance rather then the strict and precise movements of rhythmic gymnastics.
After several years studying with Laban she became his assistant in 1919. She soon departed from Laban since she found Laban was to invested with his theories. In contrast, she was more passionate with moving and freeing the body, which led her to discover her own personal ideas of dance. Shortly following, Wigman opened up her own school in Dresden, Germany in 1920.
 With all these influences, she created a form of dance called, Absolute Dance. Absolute dance was often expressive. It was a combination of her training between Dalcroze and Laban, her driven personality, heritage, and the atmosphere of pre-nazi Europe. In addition to the influences, Wigman was also drawn to counter direction and spatial pulls with Laban's articulate technique.

Witch Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp-Z07Yc5oQ

Introduction to Mary Wigman

 

Mary Wigman, a native of Hanover, Germany grew up in a very wealthy family during the industrialization of Europe. Her father was a manufacture and created his own business. When Wigman was nine her father had passed, where she was confined to the family business.
For her secondary education she had strived to go to the Gymnasium in Germany, an all girls school. Instead her family forced her to attend school in Germany, England, and Switzerland. With her parents intention to become "attractive and marriageable" and to be a factor in her family's upward social mobility for their own sake.  Her parents eventually arranged two engagements, but both of them were unsuccessful.
Wigman kept searching for an outlet to express herself. She had turned to singing and wanted to make a career of it, but once again it did not meet with her family's expectations.  After seeing Dalcroze's dancers perform she decided to go against her parents will and came to study with Dalcrose and Laban.  In 1920 she opened a school in Dresden, which eventually expanded all over Germany, and opening one in New York.
Wigman believed in two essential types of dancing, absolute and stage dance. Absolute dance, described as exciting and moving for the dancer. Also interested in the reaction of the audience to the dance. In stage dance she concentrated on the atmosphere of the total stage event. In addition to the aesthetic of her dances, she used masks to create different personalities. These personalities were grotesque, weighted, bound, emotional, and bizarre.
During the 1960's Wigman retired because of old age and blindness. Even after her retirement/death her ideas are still carried on today.

"Our dance is born of our age and it's spirit, it has the stamp of our time as no other art form has." -Mary Wigman