ABSTRACT
This final section outlines a series of practical exercises, with particular attention to Wigman’s pedagogy. These exercises are intended to give the experimenter a visceral experience of the performance and training elements that appear most crucial to understanding Mary Wigman’s viewpoint. The exercises are not intended to recreate Mary Wigman’s teaching practice. They are simply one contemporary way of experiencing the fundamental elements identified by Wigman as she formulated her deep exploration into the stuff that dance is made of. An appreciation for the uniqueness of Wigman’s German dance came to me through an American modern dancer. Eve Gentry joined Hanya Holm’s original dance company in 1936 and worked with Holm during those formative years of modern dance as a performer and teacher at Holm’s studio. As an American dancer in the 1980s and 1990s, Gentry revealed to me values and methodology that seemed at once revolutionary and part of a dance legacy that had been lost to many contemporary dancers. Ongoing research and the generosity of many former Wigman students allowed me to continue to learn about Wigman’s methods even after Gentry passed away in 1994. These exercises developed from a burning desire to understand Mary Wigman’s philosophy, to share her concepts with current dance and theater students and to recognize the lasting significance of her work. Some exercises may seem familiar to students of theater and dance improvisation. In each
exercise, the emphasis is on the underlying concept as it relates to Wigman’s fundamentals.
