Wigman’s witches: Reformism, Orientalism, Nazism

This paper investigates the three versions of Mary Wigman’s Hexentanz (Witch Dance) in the context of the different political regimes which they spanned. The changing cultural milieus shaped – through Wigman’s imagination if not necessarily consciously – the works’ forms and iconographies. The witch figure relates to pre-industrial, pre-Christian Germanic identity and sparked considerable interest among völkisch and indeed Nazi groups. Wigman’s dances present a kaleidoscope of different treatments of the witch motif, encompassing (variously) the life reform movement, an intercultural fusion with oriental performance traditions, and a strand of paganism which also influenced National Socialism. They converge, however, around a unifying critique of modernity.

This article has been published in a revised form in Dance Research Journal http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S014976771600019X. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Congress on Research in Dance 2016.