Mary Wigman the witch

My paper investigates the different versions of Mary Wigman’s famous Hexentanz (Witch Dance) which have spanned three political regimes (including the Third Reich). I examine how the cultural and political milieus of these different periods may have shaped, through Wigman’s imagination if not necessarily consciously, the form and iconography of the works. I also intend a rereading of the central figure of the witch. Although Hexentanz has been interpreted as feminist in current research (e.g. Banes 1998), early 20th-century inquests into historical witchcraft trials reveal interpretations ranging from anti-clerical and feminist, to racist and anti-semitic.