I am grateful that Irmgard Bartenieff did not retire at 70. If she had, I would not have had the gift of studying and working with her.
Irmgard was 75 when I began my movement analysis studies. Certainly, all her younger students regarded her respectfully, even with awe – her multiple careers demonstrating the many possible applications of movement study.
What we absorbed less obviously was Irmgard’s worldview, her understanding of the interrelationships of the different disciplines that deal with body/mind function and expression. Perhaps it was always her unique gift to think integratively. But this was a talent cultivated over a lifetime. It reached fruition in her last years and became a gift she shared with her students, even though we might not have fully appreciated it at the time.