Mary Wigman may not be as well known as other dancers of the twentieth century- partially because there is of course little surviving footage of her, and her reputation was somewhat tarnished by creating work to help propagate Nazi ideology .
But we know even the greats can be problematic (for every good man like Thom Yorke, there’s an objectionable Pablo Picasso) and history can obliterate economic necessity. Not that this is a viable excuse for getting into bed with the far-right.
No, time has been kinder to the German dancer’s work, not life choices. She was decades ahead, creating expressionist dance, and therefore by extension, contemporary dance. Her work, ‘Hexentanz’, or ‘Witch’s Dance’, still holds up beautifully in its forward -thinking movement vocabulary.
She created this piece initially without music, which completely shocked audiences, then minimal percussion was added. The original piece itself dates from 1926, but was filmed in 1930. It could have been performed yesterday.
Hit The North 