Bodenwieser
Gertrud Bodenwieser (1890-1959)
dancer, choreographer and teacher of Shona Dunlop MacTavish
Gertrud Bodenwieser was born in Vienna on February 3, 1890, into the haute-bourgeois, assimilated Jewish Bondi family. From An Early Age Gertrud Showed A Talent For Dancing. In C.1905-10 She Was Trained In Classical Ballet By Carl Godlewski, But Soon Recognized That This Art Form Had ‘Become A Mere Exhibition Of Virtuosity’.
On June 27, 1920, Gertrud Bodenwieser married Friedrich Rosenthal, the director of the Burgtheater, who was her artistic collaborator. From her own studio, she began establishing the Bodenwieser Dance Group (Tanzgruppe Bodenwieser, 1923–1938). In 1924 she created “Dämon Maschine” (The Demon Machine), one of her major early pieces, which she performed with great success for thirty years. One critic commented: “Are we in an engine room? Are we in a concert hall? One forgets this and experiences only the all-enveloping dashing to pieces” (Dunlop-MacTavish).
After her last performance in Vienna on January 8, 1938 Gertrud Bodenwieser was forced to give up the professorship in choreography at the Vienna State Academy of Music and Dramatic Art which she had held since 1928. In this position she had developed an innovative training and education program in modern dance which included gymnastics, improvisation, art history, dance history and design. In the context of Ausdruckstanz, she was termed “the most important and active personality produced by Vienna in this field” (Kügler).
After fleeing to France with her husband, she left in 1939 to tour Colombia for almost a year with some of the members of her group, including her pianist, Marcel Lorber. Shona Dunlop’s family had obtained visas for her to migrate with them to Australia via New Zealand. She never again saw her husband. A series of letters between Bodenwieser and the Red Cross detail how he had been captured by the Germans in France and in 1942 transferred to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.
Bodenwieser arrived in Sydney, Australia in 1939 and opened a dance studio which revolutionized the country’s modern dance. She established the Bodenwieser Viennese Ballet and was once again acclaimed “the prophet of living dance.” From 1940 to 1954 the Ballet toured Australian cities and towns, as well as visiting New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia and India. Lucifer’s Masks, created in Vienna in 1936 as a reaction to the growth of Fascism and National-Socialism, remained in her repertoire.
Gertrud Bodenwieser ‘Damon Mashine’
Choreographed 1923 by Gertrud Bodenwieser (1890-1959) Reconstructed 1960 by Emmy Steinninger-Taussig/Barbara Cuckson Filmed 1969 Bodenwieser STudio St Marys Australia by Barbara Cuckson Dancers; Diane Cassidy, Margaret Cuckson, Nadia Konarew, Lisabeth Martin, Marilyn Redman Music composed by Lisa Maria Mayer Pianist Robert Cuckson Filmed to document the choreography by dancers trained in Bodenwieser style.