1. Grete Wiesenthal was an Austrian dancer, actor, choreographer, and dance teacher.
13 Facts About Grete Wiesenthal
1. 2.
Grete Wiesenthal transformed the Viennese Waltz from a staple of the ballroom into a wildly ecstatic dance.
3.
Grete Wiesenthal was trained at the Vienna Court Opera, but left to develop her own more expressive approach, creating ballets to music by Franz Schreker, Clemens von Franckenstein, and Franz Salmhofer, as well as dancing in her own style to the waltzes of Johann Strauss II.
4.
Grete Wiesenthal is considered a leading figure in modern dance in Austria.
5.
Grete Wiesenthal was born in Vienna on 9 December 1885, daughter of the painter Franz Wiesenthal and his wife Rosa.
6.
Grete Wiesenthal called her approach "spherical dance", involving turning and extending the torso, arms, and legs on a horizontal axis, unlike the more vertical rotations of her contemporaries Isadora Duncan and Ruth St Denis, who were admired at that time in Vienna.
7.
In 1908, Grete Wiesenthal led her sisters Berta and Elsa at Vienna's Cabaret Fledermaus, the highlight being her "Danube waltzes" solo performed to Johann Strauss II's "On the Beautiful Blue Danube".
8.
Grete Wiesenthal choreographed and appeared in the title role of the 1910 pantomime play Sumurun at the Berlin Kammerspiel theatre, directed by Max Reinhardt with script by Friedrich Freksa; a more elaborate production travelled to London in 1911 and New York in 1912.
9.
Grete Wiesenthal continued to give dance performances in Vienna and on tour.
10.
Grete Wiesenthal married Erwin Lang in June 1910, divorcing in 1923.
11.
Grete Wiesenthal married the Swedish doctor Nils Silfverskjold that same year, divorcing in 1927.
12.
Grete Wiesenthal is buried in the Central Cemetery in Vienna.
13.
Grete Wiesenthal is revered in Austria as a pioneer of modern dance, where her choreography saw a late 20th century renaissance.