Roger George

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Roger George (born April 3, 1921 in Alassio ; † February 25, 1998 in Kiel ) was a Swiss-German dancer , pantomime , choreographer , ballet master and dance teacher.

Live and act

Roger George grew up with two siblings in Château-d'Oex and from 1930 in Bern . His single mother was a pianist and he received piano lessons as a child. He was allowed to watch when his mother worked as a piano accompanist in Else Hausin's dance school, was enthusiastic about dance and was able to take part in Dalcroze- based lessons there. At his father's request, he had to complete an apprenticeship as a shop window decorator and then worked as a freelancer in this profession. However, he continued to take dance lessons and from 1937 also performed with Else Hausin's dance group. From 1939 he supplemented this training with Beatrice Tschumi, Walter Kleiber, Lisa Mutschelknaus and Irina Grjebina in classical dance. In-depth courses with Boris Kniaseff, Alexander Volinine and Olga Preobrajenska in Paris were added later.

George had his first theater engagement 1946–1948 as a dancer under Heinz Rosen at the Stadttheater Basel , followed by the seasons 1948–1950 under Hans Macke at the Stadttheater Zürich and 1950–52 under Kurt Jooss as a soloist at the Folkwang-Tanz-Theater in Essen. His most important roles here were the flag bearer in Der Grüne Tisch (music: Fritz Cohen ) and the fine gentleman in the big city (music: Alexandre Tansman ). In 1952/1953 an engagement led him to the Landestheater Darmstadt . 1953/1954 he was a guest at the Städtische Bühne Heidelberg , 1954/1955 he became deputy ballet master there and created his first ballet choreography Isla Persa (music: Raffaele d'Alessandro ). 1955/1956 he was engaged there again as a guest. 1956–1960 he was a solo dancer at the Nationaltheater Mannheim , where he danced Catulli Carmina , Carmina Burana and Alkestis in Mary Wigman's choreographies . In 1956 he was a soloist in the Bacchanal of Wieland Wagner's Tannhäuser production and choreographic assistant for Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Bayreuth. 1960–1963 George worked again as a solo dancer at the Städtische Bühne Heidelberg, 1963–1967 as a ballet master at the Städtische Bühnen Essen (opera house), 1967/1968 in Oberhausen. Finally he was professor at the dance department of the State University of Bahia / Salvador (Brazil) from 1968 to 1970.

Roger George "was the most important representative of male expressive dance in the post-war period", succeeding Harald Kreutzberg . Since the 1940s, parallel to his theater engagements, he has given mainly solo and chamber dance evenings, first with Aenne (Goldschmidt) Michel , from 1950 to 1952 with Elsie Lanz, then with Inga Weiss and 1953 with Hilde Baumann, from 1954 only soloist. By the end of his active dancing career in 1983, he had made over 1,000 solo guest performances at home and abroad.

In 1944 he temporarily had his own school in Bern. Since 1970 he has taught at the Lola-Rogge-Schule in Hamburg, at the Irene-Olk-Schule in Lübeck, in Klappholttal on Sylt and at the Ellen-Cleve-Schule in Kiel. In 1971 he founded a children's drama school in Lübeck, which still exists today, with his wife Ute George and Marianne Vibach-Schubart. From 1963 Roger George had several television productions, including dances and animals, and was involved in the choreography of Heinz Rosen in 1955 in the film production Stern von Rio as a dancer.

Awards

  • 1961: Antonio Viotti Prize (from Vercelli )

literature

  • George, Roger. In: Herbert A. Frenzel , Hans Joachim Moser (eds.): Kürschner's biographical theater manual. Drama, opera, film, radio. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. De Gruyter, Berlin 1956, DNB 010075518 , p. 205.
  • George, Roger. In: Horst Koegler : Friedrichs Ballettlexikon. Velber near Hanover 1972, p. 216.
  • Patricia Stöckemann: A kaleidoscope of movement. In the succession of expressive dance - the dancer and choreographer Roger George. In: Tanzdrama , No. 16 / August 1991, pp. 12-15.
  • Patricia Stöckemann: Roger George, last great expressive dancer (1921–1998). In: Dance & Gymnastics. Journal of the Swiss Professional Association for Dance and Gymnastics , issue 3/1998. (Also in: Memoria , Bulletin, Lausanne. H. 5, November 1998, pp. 2-5).
  • Ursula Pellaton: Roger George . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 696 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Pellaton in the Theater Lexikon der Schweiz; similar at Stöckemann. s. Lit.
  2. ↑ The institution. On the website of the children's drama school Lübeck, accessed on July 4, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME George, Roger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss-German dancer, choreographer, ballet master and dance teacher
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Alassio
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1998
Place of death Kiel