Meta Menz

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Meta Menz's grave at Neustift Cemetery

Meta Menz (born April 11, 1906 in Munich , † January 10, 1990 in Vienna ) was an Austrian ballet dancer. From the late 1920s she worked as a percussionist and dancer in Mary Wigman's troupe and from 1931 also as a teacher at the Mary Wigman School. Afterwards she was a solo dancer at the Stadttheater in Münster , at the municipal theaters in Freiburg im Breisgau as well as a ballet master and solo dancer at the Stadttheater Baden near Vienna .

Life

Although Menz had passed the entrance exam at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, she instead attended Mary Wigman's Dresden School for Modern Dance from April 15, 1926, where she later taught sound rhythm herself, for which she had already performed in Wigman's previous years was responsible. In 1930 she worked at the Munich dancers Congress as a dancer in the choreographed by Mary Wigman and Albert Talhoff created choral work The monument in honor to honor the dead of the First World War. Then Menz accompanied the pianist Hanns Hastings Wigman on two American tours lasting several months in the early 1930s and provided musical accompaniment for the dances with various percussion instruments such as gongs , cymbals , drums and timbres . Between 1934 and 1936 Menz was the first solo dancer at the Stadttheater in Münster . On the occasion of the Olympic Festival in 1936 she danced again in the Mary Wigman group in Berlin and also studied with Tatjana Gsovsky . Then she was first solo dancer and deputy dance master at the municipal theaters in Freiburg im Breisgau . At the end of 1939 Menz moved to Vienna, where she married the café animal Hans Weigel in August 1941 . Between September 1941 and September 1942 she was ballet master and solo dancer at the Stadttheater Baden in Baden near Vienna , before taking care of her terminally ill sister, the harpsichordist Julia Menz (1901–1944).

Familiar

As the daughter of the Munich architect Ludwig Menz, Meta Menz was the sister of the pianist , harpsichordist and travel writer Julia Menz and sister-in-law of the animator , graphic artist and children's book illustrator Susi Weigel , whose brother she married.

swell

  • German Stage Yearbook (born 1935–1945)
  • Rollett Museum - City Archives, City of Baden
  • Walter Sorell: Mary Wigman - a legacy. Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1986. ISBN 3-7959-0464-1 .
  • Mary Wigman: Dear Hanya: Mary Wigman's letters to Hanya Holm. University of Wisconsin Press 2004.
  • The New Yorker . Jan 24, 1931.

literature

Web links

  • Ruth Seinfel: Congo Drum Booms Rhythm for Miss Wigman's Dances. (PDF; 491 kB). In: New York Evening Post, January 19, 1931, p. 7 (On the occasion of the American tour of 1931, the article portrays Mary Wigman's rhythm duo Hanns Hastings and Meta Menz, who can also be seen in a photograph.)
  • An Impressive Moment in “Der Weg”. In: The Emporia Daily Gazette, February 2, 1933, p. 5 (The article names Meta Menz as a member of Mary Wigman's American tour troupe in 1932/33.)
  • Information on Mary Wigman dances (1932) ( Memento from December 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). Music: Hanns Hasting, Meta Menz.
  • The accompanying historical film: Mary Wigman Dances ( Memento from October 1, 2009 on the Internet Archive ). Music: Hanns Hasting, Meta Menz. ( Original title: MARY WIGMAN TANZT. Production year: 1932. Producer: Atlantic-Film Hans Arnau & Co., Berlin, for Reichsbahnzentrale für den Deutschen Reiseverkehr, Berlin. Music: Hanns Hasting, Meta Menz. German Censorship: March 17, 1932 . Censurship-Nr .: 31234. Length: 35mm, sound, 268 m. Censurship card preserved at Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin. German title of the dances performed: Seraphisches Lied, Pastorale, Sommerlicher Tanz, Hexentanz. )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mary Wigman dances with her master class classes I, IIa and assistants. Sunday, April 21, 1929. 11 o'clock in the morning in the State Playhouse. 7th special event. Musical accompaniment: Will Goetze, Irmgard Paulig. Dancers: Liselot Huck, Mascha Lidolt, Annemarie Franke, Linnie Ferrik, Lore Geissler, Meta Menz, Gretl Curth, Toni Ottenheimer, Eva Busch, Claire Hilsenrath, Jlse Laredo, Tina Flade, Hertha Westmann. Dresden: Dresdener Volksbühne eV, 1929.
personal data
SURNAME Menz, meta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian ballet dancer
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1990
Place of death Vienna