Viennese Waltz Dance Technique after Grete Wiesenthal

A name, a life, an idea – a dance?

For which qualities in dance, for which movements to particular music, is Grete Wiesenthal still known today? Her legacy lies in two fundamental qualities that art reinterprets again and again, yet which rarely outlast their time. Grete Wiesenthal’s liberating dance – her profoundly feminine invention of the early years of the 20th century in Vienna – is a cultural heritage that was almost lost and often underestimated, yet was revived and carried forward in recurring initiatives.

In 1901 Grete Wiesenthal joined the corps de ballet of the Vienna Court Opera. As early as 1902, when she had become an important pillar of the ensemble, Gustav Mahler recognised her exceptional talent. Despite her success, she left the Court Opera together with her younger sister Elsa after a conflict with the ballet master. From then on the two sisters developed a completely new, unconventional dance style – free of templates and rules. “We are speaking here of inestimable values.”

The Austrian Dance Council (ÖTR / ADC) has set itself the goal of bringing this almost forgotten Austrian dance style back to life.

From Grete Wiesenthal’s dance, her artistic thinking and her feeling, a distinct technical form of movement for women developed. The ÖTR draws on contacts with contemporary witnesses, on Wiesenthal’s original documents and on the supportive feedback of renowned personalities who expressly affirm the importance of a renaissance of the “Viennese Waltz Dance Technique after Grete Wiesenthal”.

The Austrian Dance Council therefore intends to submit this Austrian cultural heritage to UNESCO as national intangible cultural heritage. All the necessary documents are available at short notice.

More than 5,000 documents – letters, instructions on the technique and texts written by Grete Wiesenthal herself – were handed over to the ÖTR by Prof. Leonhard M. Fiedler, a professor of literature living near Paris, with the request to treat them carefully, with a view to the future and responsibly for the public.

This significant material from the 1920s is now being systematically processed in order to revive the almost forgotten art of dance as a traditional Austrian form. First classes in Wiesenthal technique, based on originally transmitted forms of movement, have already been held successfully several times with professional teachers and former students of the Vienna State Opera Ballet School in the studios of Europaballett St. Pölten.

Our aim is to pass on this national cultural heritage tradition throughout Austria to coming generations according to clearly documented and defined forms of teaching – a task we feel committed to, and whose quality and distinctiveness will speak for themselves.

Michael Kropf
President ÖTR / ADC