Grete Wiesenthal

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Leo Rauth : Grete Wiesenthal dances the spring voice waltz , graphic 1910

Grete Wiesenthal (born December 9, 1885 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † June 22, 1970 in Vienna, Austria ) was an Austrian dancer , actress , choreographer and dance teacher.

Life

Training and beginnings

At the age of ten she was accepted into the ballet school of what was then the Vienna Court Opera , where she learned classical ballet. From 1901 to 1907 she worked there as a dancer. In 1905 she was appointed luminary of the Vienna Court Opera Ballet and in 1907 played the title role in Die Stumme von Portici .

Despite her success, she left the opera and founded an independent dance group with her sisters Elsa and Bertha in 1908, in which she developed a new, non-classical dance style, which was characterized by special swing techniques.

On January 14th the sisters made their debut with idiosyncratic waltz interpretations in the Viennese cabaret Fledermaus . They later toured Berlin, St. Petersburg, Budapest and Prague. Max Reinhardt hired her for his pantomime Sumurun .

Grete went into business for herself in 1910 from her sisters after she married the painter Erwin Lang . In 1912 she appeared as a kitchen boy in the world premiere of the opera Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, staged by Reinhardt . As a dancing ambassador of the Viennese waltz , especially of Johann Strauss (son) , she achieved great popularity during these years. Her dance style combined elements of classical ballet with those of modern dance. Grete Wiesenthal's dance partner was Toni Birkmeyer (father of Michael Birkmeyer ) several times . She also made a few appearances as a silent film actress.

Dance group

In 1912 she founded her own dance group and in 1917 a dance school in Vienna. She worked temporarily as a theater actress and made a tour of Europe in 1921/22.

In 1922 Wiesenthal became aware of the author Richard Billinger in the Viennese Café Museum , whom she heard reciting his own verses in a hushed voice, and gave him the friendship with Hugo von Hofmannsthal . In 1928 she danced and played at the opening of the Salzburg Festival in Billinger's play Perchtenspiel through the Exl stage in the role of the beautiful Perchtin.

In 1930 she staged her ballet Der Taugenasst von Wien at the Vienna State Opera . From 1930 to 1959 she worked as a choreographer at the Salzburg Festival , where   she choreographed Iphigenie in Aulide in 1927 . From 1934 to 1952 she taught at the dance department of the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

Grete Wiesenthal and Max Reinhardt

Grete Wiesenthal has worked several times as a choreographer and as an executive dancer in productions by Max Reinhardt in performances for the Salzburg Festival. In the year of her debut (1908), with the support of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, he integrated her and her sister Elsa into the Berlin production of Aristophanes ' Lysistrata . In 1910, Reinhardt and Wiesenthal produced the legendary pantomime Sumurûn by Friedrich Freska, which was later played around the world, and two more Wiesenthal works for Max Reinhardt were created with the tailor and the kitchen boy in Molieres Der Bürger als Edelmann (Stuttgart 1912). In 1928 the dancer, who was already internationally acclaimed, performed at the Salzburg Festival. In addition to a dance evening (together with Toni Birkmeyer) she also appeared - in a speaking role - in the world premiere of Richard Billinger's Perchtenspiel , a piece that was described as the "dance and magic game of the foolish farmer, the bride of the wind and the saints". Max Reinhardt's staging of Die Fledermaus (Berlin 1929) was "thoroughly choreographed" and created in collaboration with Grete Wiesenthal.

Period of National Socialism and the post-war period

After the “Anschluss” of Austria , she granted ostracized personalities a refuge in her apartment. In 1945 she became head of the dance department of the Academy for Music and Fine Arts and remained so until 1952. From 1952 to 1959 she was responsible for the choreography in Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival . She described her youth until she left the Vienna Court Opera in the autobiography Der Aufstieg .

It rests in an honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery (55-13). In 1981 Wiesenthalgasse in Vienna- Favoriten was named after her.

Ballets

Fonts

  • The climb . From the life of a dancer. Berlin 1919 (autobiography), reissued under the title The First Steps. Vienna 1947.

Filmography

literature

  • Rudolf Huber-Wiesenthal: The Wiesenthal sisters . 1934.
  • Ingeborg Prenner: Grete Wiesenthal. The founder of a new dance style. Phil. Diss. Vienna 1950.
  • Leonard M. Fiedler and Martin Lang (eds.): Grete Wiesenthal. The beauty of the language of the body in dance. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg and Vienna 1985.
  • Andrea Amort : “I could imagine a modern dancer who dances on crutches.” In: Fledermaus Kabarett 1907 to 1913. Ed. By Michael Buhrs, Barbara Lesák u. Thomas Trabitsch . Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2007, pp. 137–153.
  • Gabriele Brandstetter and Gunhild Oberzaucher-Schüller (eds.): Dialect of Viennese Modernism. The dance of Grete Wiesenthal. Kieser, Munich 2009.
  • Andrea Amort: Free Dance in Interwar Vienna. In: Interwar Vienna. Culture between Tradition and Modernity. Eds. Deborah Holmes and Lisa Silverman. New York, Camden House, 2009, p. 117-142.
  • Susanne Mundorf: Grete Wiesenthal: renaissance of a dance form and waltz swings.

Web links

Commons : Grete Wiesenthal  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Wiesenthal, Grete
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian dancer, actress, choreographer and dance teacher
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1970
Place of death Vienna , Austria