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
It is interesting how Mary Wigman is very well-known for her differentiation of "stage dance" and "absolute dance." This clip shows "Witch Dance" in my opinion as the perfect mix between the two different types of dance. The "stage" aspect is clearly apparent with the choice of costuming and mask. The "absolute" dance is apparent in the sense that she is expressing some inner emotion that is nondescript, yet the tension and rigidity in the movement style evokes a certain quality that is tangible for the audience to feel. It is also intriguing to know that she studied so intensely with Laban, because from this dance her movement preferences are very clear. She has a very bound flow and punch is very evident throughout the piece. There are no moments of having the polar opposites of these movement qualities and that strikes me as sort of a rebellious attitude of Laban's idea of knowing and being able to execute all of the different efforts in dancing.
ReplyDeleteWe agree with what you have said in your observation. We would like to include that she was inspired by the polarities within the body, such as cross lateral, Laban introduced to her. Although she had her own style she did not throw everything she learned from Laban away.
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