Gret Palucca

Palucca (actually Paluka Margaret, born January 8, 1902 in Munich, † March 22, 1993 in Dresden) was a German dancer and dance teacher.

Life

Palucca was the daughter of coming from Constantine Opel pharmacist Max Paluka and pink Paluka, was the Jewish- Hungarian origin. Shortly after her birth in Munich, the family moved to San Francisco. In 1909 Palucca but returned with her mother Rosa to Germany and came back to Dresden, where she received 1914-1916 ballet lessons with Heinrich Kröller.

Even as Ballettelevin was Palucca the classical dance with skepticism about. Visiting a Dresdner dance with Mary Wigman was for them at a key moment and Palucca one of the first students of Mary Wigman. In 1921 it changed its name to Palucca.

Until 1924 she danced in Wigman's group. Then she began her solo career and became one of the leading dancers expression. Her style was cheerful, light-hearted and humorous, convey such as the choreography of In wide swing dance or joy.

Since 1924 was Palucca with Fritz Bienert, the owner of a mill operation in Dresden- Plauen, married for six years. He was the son of Ida Bienert, the first private art collector of modern art in Germany. In their home, the artists of the Dada went well on and off as the architects of the young Bauhaus, where her daughter Ise Bienert, a Worpswede student studied. Palucca was the theme of the new art. With Fritz Bienert she spent her summer vacations from 1924 regularly on the island of Sylt.

In 1925 Palucca founded her own school. The Palucca School in Dresden differed from those of other schools of its kind not the physical drill was in the foreground, but the intellectual and artistic education. Her most famous students include Ruth Berghaus and Lotte Goslar and Anne- Rose Schunke, the later GDR news anchor Anne- Rose Neumann.

In 1926, Wassily Kandinsky wrote two acclaimed essays on Palucca that contributed to her growing reputation.

On April 29, 1927 Palucca occurred in Dessau Bauhaus.

" Palucca compresses the room, she divided him. , The space expands, sinks and floats - fluctuating in all directions "

In 1930, separated Palucca of Fritz Bienert and began a relationship with Will Grohmann. With him, she was often on Sylt. In 1935 he wrote the first monograph on Palucca under the pseudonym Olaf Rydberg.

At the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, she took on the opening night at the side of Leni Riefenstahl in part with their own contributions. By 1939, she had many performances and was able to work unhindered. In 1939, she then received by the Nazis ban on dancing and had the management of its school exits. But you still danced on private events, but this was her later banned under penalty of imprisonment in concentration camps.

Palucca had not banned from performing with the exception of state and Nazi party events .. The Legend of the complete stage ban had been lying in the Third Reich until the closure of all theaters in 1944 in the interest of cultural leaders in the GDR. Through a special permit procured by Grohmann 1936, they could despite their stigma as so-called " half-Jewish " continue to occur as a dancer, touring abroad were you initially allowed, but then prohibited. The press was not allowed to discuss their positive performances. On March 31, 1939 her school was closed.

On 1 July 1945, she re-opened her dance school in the Karcherallee 43 in Dresden. In 1949, the Palucca school was nationalized. The term dance did not reflect the new spirit of the times. The term New Artistic Dance Palucca still trying to maintain their orientation on the syllabus. However, this classical ballet dominated the training. In 1959, she left the GDR, went to Sylt and negotiated from there on the conditions of their return. As a concession, she received the artistic director of the dance school in Dresden assured and a professor, a car with a chauffeur, and a plot of land on Hiddensee.

At the founding of the German Academy of Arts in Berlin (East) in 1952, she was involved. From 1965 to 1970 she was Vice President.

On the 75th birthday of Wilhelm Pieck in 1951 she gave her last solo performance. Into old age Palucca remained active as a dance teacher.

After her death in 1993 Palucca was buried in Hiddensee, where they had spent their annual summer stays in-house. At the beginning of the 20th century there was here an artists' colony, in which it was sometimes a guest.

On 20 March 2009, a week before the auction on 28 March 2009, her house was demolished on Hiddensee of the owner. A Friends of the Palucca School had formed to bid on the property and the wooden house for the minimum bid of 380,000 euros. Supporters of the initiative have included Tom Pauls, Wolfgang Stumph and Gunther Emmerlich. Despite the demolition of the initiative wanted to hold on to the acquisition. It should be made dancers of Palucca School and fellows of the Saxon art academies as a meeting place available. Instead auctioned a Saxon industrialist the estate.

Awards

• National Prize of the GDR (1960 and 1981 )
• Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold (1972 ), Honorary clasp ( 1985)
• Honorary citizen of the city of Dresden ( 1979)
• Star of Friendship of Peoples (1980 )
• German Dance Award (1983 )
• Honorary Member of the German Academy of Dance, Cologne ( 1987)
• Honorary member of the Berlin Academy of Arts (1991 )
• Great Cross of Merit with Star and Sash of the Federal Republic of Germany (1992 )

Tributes

Ships

Your longtime host named their summer holidays in List (Sylt ) in the early 1960s, her first tour boat after their name " Palucca "; all subsequent ships of this small shipping company carried the name " Palucca " or " Palucca ". Even today runs an excursion Cutter Eagle shipping company which has taken over the lines of the old Palucca shipping company, under the name " Palucca ", another under the name of her mother, " Rosa Paluka ".

Road

In Dresden there is the Gret - Palucca road.

Stamp

On 8 October 1998 a stamp of 4,40 DM with Palucca's portrait was issued under the Stamp Series Women in German history.

Exhibition

The museum Hofmühle Dresden Plauen district there is a permanent exhibition about Palucca's life and work.

Facade design

At a house in Dresden Kanzleigäßchen a façade with images Palucca was designed in dance.