Manja Chmièl  – Rebel of Contemporary Dance

Manja Chmièl (1922–2006) was far ahead of her time. A student of Mary Wigman in Leipzig and her assistant in Berlin, she turned away from expressive dance to position her own dance on an equal footing with new music, literature, and the abstract arts. In 1962, she founded the group Neuer Tanz Berlin, Germany’s first independent dance company.

In her book, eyewitness Irene Sieben explores the question of why her once most important teacher has been largely ignored by dance history. In her book, she places Manja Chmièl alongside Dore Hoyer as a prominent innovator of a specific dance language.

Dresden-based dancer Anna Till has reconstructed three of her solos, with which she performed internationally. The spinning dance “Unter den Sternen” was transcribed into Laban notation by kinetographer Thomas Schallmann based on Manja Chmièl’s recollections. The dance notation is included in the book. During a screening of historical film footage from 1962, viewers can experience the dance pioneer in an interview with literary scholar Walter Höllerer, as well as through three of her dances and one of her group choreographies.