I knew Irmgard Bartenieff for seven years – first as her student, then her teaching assistant, then a fellow faculty member. Our lives intersected at many points as we worked together, liberating the Effort/Shape Program from the Dance Notation Bureau and setting up the Laban Institute of Movement Studies.
Across this whole time, I never once saw Irmgard “pull rank.” She out-classed most of her younger colleagues in both intelligence and experience. But she had the marvelous capacity of not only helping us to “see,” but also allowing us to “be seen” and valued.
In various ways too numerous to mention, she quietly encouraged me. I think we were friends. After her death, I left New York City to go to graduate school. In Arizona, where I had no Laban colleagues nearby, the person I missed most was Irmgard.
Find out more about the legacy of this remarkable woman in the upcoming MoveScape course, “Irmgard Bartenieff: In Her Own Words.”