Gurdjieff's Movements and
European Art

Mainly we think of Gurdjieff Movements as a from of expressive dancing and in order to give an impression of what else belongs to this category we concentrate on two german artists of this time, because in the way the dancing influences the body and soul of human, parallels to Gurdjieff's Movements can be found.


Mary Wigman

Born on 13th of November 1886 Marie Wiegmann (later Mary Wigman) came in 1911 to learn at the "Rhythmische Bildungsanstalt" of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze in Dresden-Hellerau in the new building of Heinrich Tessenow. In 1912 she passes her examination as a teacher of rhythmic gymnastic in the tradition of Dalcroze. In the following years she is first pupil, then assistent to Rudolf von Laban. She performs solo in Switzerland with different resonance. After a successful perfomance in Dresden in 1919 she gets the possibility to work as master of dance at the opera. She refuses this offer but moves to Dresden where she founds a dance school. As solo performer and together with her Mary-Wigman-Dancegroup she travels across Europe from 1920 on. In 1930/1931 and 1931/1932 during a tour to the U.S.A. she gets successful too.


1911

In 1942 Mary Wigman performs solo for the last time with her program "Abschied und Dank" in Dresden. She sells the mansion of her school, moves over to Leibzig, where she works as guest teacher at the "Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst" (institute for music and representing art). In 1945 she founds a school in Leibzig.

A new beginning is the Mary-Wigman-Studio in Berlin-Dahlem from 1949 to 1967.
18th September 1973 Mary Wigman dies at the age of 86 in Berlin.



1911