Hiller Girls
The Hiller Girls (also Original Hiller Girls or Hiller Ballet ) were a dance group from Berlin that was founded in 1928 and (presumably) existed until 1968. The ensemble, which consists of ten to twelve dancers, became known through stage, film and television appearances, as well as through touring in Germany and abroad.
history
The Hiller Girls were founded in 1928 by the German opera singer Rolf Hiller (1888–1968). Hiller's wife Gertrude Hiller (1902–1968), a former dancer of the Royal State Opera, was responsible for the choreographies . The ballet was founded as the German counterpart of the Tiller Girls . Influenced by contemporary artists such as Rudolf von Laban , Mary Wigman or Jutta Klamt , the group quickly achieved notoriety through their perfect synchronization and their expressionistic dance style. She became a symbol of modern sexuality and the modern woman who determines her own body and life. Even after the National Socialists came to power , the Hiller Girls remained an important part of the art and cultural scene . The ensemble performed at the Berlin Dance Festival in 1934 and 1935 and at the opening ceremony of the 1936 Summer Olympics . Their performances are in the Olympic films of Leni Riefenstahl to see.
A military dance show in 1937 caused a sensation. They marched to Prussian military music in uniforms that were reminiscent of the time of Frederick the Great . For this show they were trained by an officer of the Wehrmacht . A contemporary newspaper report noted about the performance on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Variety Theater Wintergarten that the performance was only surpassed by the music corps of the SS honor guard . After the outbreak of World War II , the group's military-style appearances in Berlin were less popular, and the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) filed an official protest against the appearances. In November 1940 the ensemble undertook a “Wehrmacht Tour” through occupied Belgium and France, organized by the Kraft durch Freude movement . The motto was "The watch parade is coming".
After the end of the war, the group regained prominence through dance performances in the revue films of the 1950s. The ballet appeared several times in films with the pop singer Gerhard Wendland . This was followed by other films and appearances on German television in entertainment programs such as "Melodie der Welt". The ensemble was dissolved in 1968, probably because of the death of artistic director Gertrud Hiller.
The estate archive of the Hiller Girls is in the German Dance Archive in Cologne .
Filmography
- 1938: The stars shine
- 1943: acrobat schö-ö-ön
- 1950: The third from the right
- 1951: The veiled Maja
- 1951: You have to be beautiful
- 1952: Dancing stars
- 1953: crackers
- 1958: The stage is clear for Marika
- 1959: Sailors' paradise
Web links
- Page about Rolf Hiller in the German Dance Archive Cologne.
- Page about Gertrude Hiller at the German Dance Archive Cologne.
- Website with information about the Hiller Girls
- Hiller-Girls in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Peter Jelavich: Berlin cabaret. Studies in cultural history . Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 254–255 ( books.google.de - restricted view).
- Terri J. Gordon: Fascism and the Femal Form: Performance Art in the Third Reich . In: Dagmar Herzog (Ed.): Sexuality and German fascism . Berghahn Books, 2005, p. 164 ff . ( books.google.de - restricted view).
Individual evidence
- ^ Page on Rolf Hiller at the German Dance Archive Cologne; download August 1, 2020.