Gisela Taglicht
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gisela Taglicht
| image = GiselaTaglicht.png
| alt = A middle-aged white woman with wavy hair cut to collar length. She is smiling, outdoors, wearing a dark turtleneck top.
| caption = Gisela Taglicht, from a 1948 documentary film made in New Zealand.
| other_names = Gisa Taglicht, Gisa Taglight, Gizette Taglicht, Gisette Taglicht
| birth_name = Gisela Frankl
| birth_date = 28 November 1898
| birth_place = Vienna, Austria
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1981|1898}}
| death_place = Salzburg, Austria
| nationality = Austrian (by birth)
New Zealander (naturalized 1946)
}}
Gisela Taglicht (née Frankl; 28 November 1898 – 1981) was a notable New Zealand rhythmical dance and gymnastics teacher.
Early life
Gisela Frankl was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1898, the daughter of Hermann Frankl and Malvine Neuner. Her parents were Jewish;{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzportraitgallery.org.nz/portraits-online/portraits/gisa-taglicht|title=Gisa Taglicht|website=The New Zealand Portrait Gallery|access-date=2020-04-04}} her father was a tinsmith. She studied dance and movement with Ellinor Tordis and Bess Mensendieck. Her mother and sister were later killed at Auschwitz.{{DNZB|title=Gisela Taglicht|first= Margaret|last= Dart|id=5t1|accessdate=23 April 2017}}
Career
Taglicht assisted Ellinor Tordis at her Vienna dance studio in the 1920s. She left Austria fleeing Nazi persecution in 1938, going first to London, where she worked briefly as a domestic servant. In 1939 she moved to New Zealand with her younger brother's family. In 1941 she opened a rhythmic gymnastics studio in Wellington. From 1942 or 1943{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19421109.2.56.2?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Taglicht&snippet=true|title=Miss H. McDonald Resigns|date=9 November 1942|work=Evening Post|access-date=April 4, 2020|page=6|via=Papers Past}}{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19430224.2.77.5?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Taglicht&snippet=true|title=Relaxation after Work|date=February 24, 1943|work=Evening Post|access-date=April 4, 2020|page=6|via=Papers Past}} to 1963, she was director of physical education at the YWCA in Wellington.{{Cite book|last=Schultz|first=Marianne|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwXgCgAAQBAJ&q=Gisa+Taglicht&pg=PA73|title=Moving Oceans: Celebrating Dance in the South Pacific|date=2017-09-19|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-34169-7|editor-last=Buck|editor-first=Ralph|pages=73–74|language=en|chapter=Tracing the Steps of Modern and Contemporary Dance in Twentieth-Century New Zealand|editor-last2=Rowe|editor-first2=Nicholas}}{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19451108.2.95.6?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Taglicht&snippet=true|title=Graceful Display|date=8 November 1945|work=Evening Post|access-date=April 4, 2020|page=10|via=Papers Past}}
Taglicht also taught relaxation and breathing classes for pregnant women in the 1950s,{{Cite web|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/parents-centres-new-zealand|title=Parents Centres New Zealand|website=NZHistory, New Zealand history online|access-date=2020-04-04}} and taught movement to actors and opera singers through programs of the New Zealand Drama Council, the New Zealand Players, and the New Zealand Opera Company. "From simple keep fit work to creative dance, rhythmical gymnastics covers a wide scope as to the need and ability of a person, and is easily adjusted to every age group," she explained to a New Zealand newspaper in 1948.{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19480908.2.6.4?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Taglicht&snippet=true|title=Grace and Poise by Gymnastics|date=8 September 1948|work=Bay of Plenty Beacon|access-date=April 4, 2020|page=3|via=Papers Past}}
Gisa Taglicht was a fellow of the Physical Education Society of New Zealand from 1942, and became a naturalized citizen of New Zealand in 1946. A 1948 documentary, Rhythm and Movement, captured Taglicht's work on dance-inspired rhythmic fitness at the YWCA. In 1950 she returned to Vienna as a visitor, representing New Zealand at an international gymnastics festival.
Personal life
Gisela Frankl was married to Adolph Leo Taglicht from 1921 to 1923. She returned permanently to Austria in 1964, and died in Salzburg in 1981.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22764673 Gisa Taglicht and her students], and [https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22887158 Gisa Taglicht], photographs in the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Dance Archive of New Zealand Collection.
- [https://ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=63466 Rhythm and Movement (1948)], a short documentary film made about the work of Gisa Taglicht in New Zealand; from the New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero.
- Leonard Bell, Strangers Arrive: Emigrés and the Arts in New Zealand, 1930-1980 (Auckland University Press 2018). {{ISBN|9781869408732}}.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taglicht, Gisela}}
Category:New Zealand dance teachers
Category:Austrian emigrants to New Zealand
Category:Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom