Our school serves the dance.

With the villa, located on Bautzner Starße 107, Mary Wigman created a dance-historically important place. Today, the house is in the hands of the association Villa Wigman für TANZ e.V., and they working on creating an innovative production centre for the future. In the course of the renovation, layer for layer is being exposed to give the past a space in the present.

The renovation of the individual construction phases is funded by TANZPAKT Dresden city, state and federation (2019-2021), TANZPAKT in residence (2022-2024), State Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism of Saxony, the state capital Dresden, as well as financial resources of Homann Stiftung, HERMANN REEMTSMA STIFTUNG and donations.

We would like to thank all donors who have already supported us with the reno­vation work in and on the villa/wigman!

Katja Altmann, Julia Amme, Jason Beechey, Dana Bondartschuk, Ingrid und Peter Borchardt, Erik Brünner, Elena Cencetti, Chiara Detscher, Seraphine Detscher, Katja Erfurth, Matthias Erfurth, Ronny Feigenspan, Maren Flechner, Freundeskreis des Semperoper Ballett, Gisela und Dr. Klaus Fröhlich, Michael Fröhlich, Dagmar Gehrmann, Nadja Glaser, Heike Heinze, Judith Hellmann, Antje Herrmann, Heiki Ikkola, Tina Illgen, Ines Kadner, Olaf Katzer, Pierre Klimke, Ute und Frank König, Siegbert Kuhs, Nadine Kulbe & Lutz Vogel, Patrick Lauckner, Barbara Lubich, Lorna Mateev, Isolde Matkey, Florian Mayer, Nicole Meier, Renate Merker, Helge-Björn Meyer, Sascha Mock, Francesca Mommo, Hedwig Müller, Viola und Gerd Niederschuh, Nora Otte, Jörg Christoph Pfisterer, Holm Pinkert, Frieda Pirnbaum, Uwe Proksch, Joachim Püls, Angela Rannow, Jürgen Rehberg, Johanna Roggan, Benjamin Rottluff, Elke Rudolph, Olimpia Scardi, Ingrid Schütze, Romy Schwarzer, Arila Siegert, Madeleine und Hans-Joachim Sohn, Isaac Spencer, Kristoph Spiewok, Iris Sputh, Thomas Stecher, Tobias Steiner, Patricia Stöckemann, Daniel Thiele, Anna Till, Ulrike und Hannes-Detlef Vogel, Hanne Wandtke, André Wirsig, Josefine Wosahlo, Heike Zadow

The ensemble of villa\wigman is separated into tree with each other connected buildings - the town villa from 1856, the single-storey intermediate building serving as a connection, and a hall. In 1927, the two latter buildings were build due to a necessary expansion of the since 1920 existing dance school by Mary Wigman, which was build in the style of classical modernism by architect Otto Geiler from Dresden. The villa with its historical character received a new outer appearance, fitting to the character of the time, with partly new window formats and a smooth facade coat.

Next to the appreciation of the immaterial heritage of the artistic work of Mary Wigman as a pioneer of German expressive dance with international reputation, the ensemble of buildings with its outer appearance and inner design received the status of a historical monument.

Any step of the renovation on and in villa\wigman are done in close coordination with the Department of Culture and Preservation Order of the state capital Dresden.

Dance is the language that we speak.

In 1920, the dancer, dance instructor, and choreographer Mary Wigman organised a solo evening in Dresden. On this occasion, her novel style of dance and the power of the artistic expression were celebrated enthusiastically. Wigman was forced to stay in Dresden because of a general strike following from the Kapp coup. In the same year, she founded her school for dance at the villa, located on Bautzner Straße 107, where she lived, danced, choreographed and taught until 1942.

The 22 years in Dresden were the highlight of Mary Wigman’s artistic work. Here, she created internationally celebrated solo and group productions and shaped generations of dance personalities. With this, she laid the foundation for an independent modern dance education and the German Dance, that developed a reputation throughout the entire world. Throughout the global press, Mary Wigman’s school was praised as ‘temple of dance art’ and ‘German university of dance’.

In 1942, after Mary Wigman sold the school to the city, it was integrated into the municipal conservatory. At the beginning of the 1950s, the villa became state property of the German Democratic Republic (DDR). Since 1990, it was property of the Free State of Saxony. Until February 2017, the building was used as a venue and later as rehearsal stage of ‘kleine szene’ by Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden. Afterward, the state capital Dresden purchased the property. Since summer in 2019, a leasehold contract exists between the association Villa Wigman für TANZ e.V. and the state capital Dresden. Since then, the association operates the historical ensemble of buildings as a production place for performing arts and renovates it continually.