Irmgard Bartenieff (1900-1981) has come to personify the far-ranging applicability of Laban-based movement analysis. Her 60-year career spanned two continents, two languages, and multiple disciplines. Her work continues to inspire the growing community of professionals who must grapple with understanding the ephemeral phenomenon of human movement.
In preparation for the upcoming MoveScape Center seminar, “Irmgard Bartenieff: In Her Own Words,” my July blogs survey the life and times of this remarkable woman.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
During Irmgard’s childhood, Germany was a peaceful monarchy. She grew up in an affluent, middle-class family in Berlin. Her father was a government official, while her progressive mother encouraged both Irmgard and her sister to attend Gymnasium and university – a rare aspiration for women in the early 1900s.
When Irmgard graduated from Gymnasium in 1919, her diverse academic interests ranged from biology and botany to art history and archeology. But just as the end of WWI in 1919 marked a huge change for Germany, Irmgard’s own interests shifted with the founding of the newly democratic Weimar Republic. Find out more in the next blog.