Reichardt, Charlott

Dance teacher, choreographer

born: 08.08.1909 in Magdeburg

died: 30.06.1998 in Wiesbaden

Reichardt studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Leipzig, whose director Mary Wigman was a major influence on her and a lifelong role model, and successfully completed her training as a dance teacher and choreographer after just three semesters in 1943.

From 1947 to 1949, Reichhardt worked as a solo dancer and ballet master at various theaters. She then opened her own studio, first in Halle and then in Wiesbaden in 1958. Her "School for New Artistic Dance" at Wilhelmstraße 16 had its heyday in the 1970s, but had to close in 1994. From her school emerged the "Gruppe Neuer Künstlerischer Tanz", an ensemble of eight dancers, all amateurs, who had set themselves the task of making Reichardt's new dance style known.

For Reichardt, dance was more than just body control and technique, it was an expression of one's own personality. From the synthesis of classical ballet and expressive dance, as taught by her teacher Mary Wigman, modern dance, which she learned from Martha Graham in New York, and influences from jazz and folklore, Reichardt developed her very own style, which could be experienced at the annual matinees in the "Kleines Haus" of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and the "Open House Weeks" in her ballet school.