Anny Fligg
A young white woman standing barefoot in a costume with loose trousers, a sleeveless top with a peplum, and a headscarf. She is posing in a sway, with the backs of her hands facing each other, elbows poking outward.
Anny Fligg, from a 1937 Australian newspaper.
Born
Anna Flig

11 September 1862
Benern, Heilsberg, East Prussia[1]
Occupation(s)Dancer, dance educator
Years active1920s and 1930s

Anna Fligg, known as Anny Fligg or Annie Fligg, was a German dancer and dance educator, who taught the methods of Rudolf von Laban in London and in Australia in the 1930s.

Early life

Fligg was from East Prussia.[2] She studied dance with choreographer Rudolf von Laban in Berlin.[3]

Career

Anny Fligg taught dancing as a public art and health project, to beachgoers in Swinemunde.[4] She danced with the Berlin State Opera, and at Bayreuth.[5] In 1928 she was one of the principal dancers in an experimental work by Hertha Feist, Die Berufung, with music by Edmund Meisel, and costumes by Thea Schleusner.[6]

Fligg first danced in London in 1930.[4] She opened the first school for Laban's methods in London,[7][8] and was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art beginning in 1931.[5][9] "Fräulein Fligg beat a drum and away we went," recalled actress Joan Littlewood, one of her students there. "Up! Down! Leap! Stretch! ... It was great. I'd never felt so alive."[10] One of her other London students was Australian dancer Irene Vera Young.[11][12]

At the invitation of Thea Stanley Hughes,[13] Fligg danced and lectured in Australia in 1937 and 1938,[14] with accompanist Kurt Herweg-Hirsch.[4][15] She demonstrated the "ikosaeder" or "wooden crystal", a geometric device used in the Laban method for teaching about space.[16][17] "My art has no relation to health at all," she explained, "but those who aim at physical perfection through exercise must gain inspiration from the natural beauty of flowing rhythm, which draw all anatomical muscles into play while dancing."[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898". FamilySearch. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "Noted German Dancer Decided On Career As A Child". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954). 1938-05-27. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
  3. ↑ Quin, Sally (2015). Bauhaus on the Swan: Elise Blumann, an Émigré Artist in Western Australia, 1938-1948. Government Printing Office. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-74258-598-7.
  4. 1 2 3 "GERMAN DANCER; Fraulein Fligg to Visit Australia". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 1937-12-16. p. 24. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
  5. 1 2 "Women -- Real and Imaginary". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954). 1938-05-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
  6. ↑ Toepfer, Karl Eric (1997). Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935. University of California Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-520-91827-6.
  7. ↑ Hodgson, John (2001). Mastering Movement: The Life and Work of Rudolf Laban. Psychology Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-87830-080-8.
  8. ↑ Brissenden, Alan; Glennon, Keith (2010). Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance 1945-1965. Wakefield Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-86254-802-2.
  9. ↑ Evans, Mark (2009-01-13). Movement Training for the Modern Actor. Routledge. pp. 55, 73. ISBN 978-1-135-89294-4.
  10. ↑ Littlewood, Joan (2016-07-28). Joan's Book: The Autobiography of Joan Littlewood. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-3324-8.
  11. ↑ Irene Vera Young - papers, 1901-1964, State Library of New South Wales.
  12. ↑ "Dancer Here On Visit From London". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954). 1938-04-06. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
  13. ↑ "Miss Annie Fligg". The Age. 1937-11-25. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Crowd Laughs with Dancer; Health League Display". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1938-04-25. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "MISS ANNY FLIGG". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 1938-05-03. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
  16. ↑ "Geometric Device for Dancers; Fraulein Anny Fligg in Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1938-04-06. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Expressing Rhythm of Life In Dancing". Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954). 1938-04-04. p. 15. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
  18. ↑ "NOTED CREATIVE DANCER TO VISIT ADELAIDE". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954). 1938-05-24. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-04-03 – via Trove.
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