Gret Palucca

{{Infobox artist

| name = Gret Palucca

| image = Fotothek df pk 0000156 038 Aufnahmen von M. Friedrichs, M. Fischer, Hermann Matern, Arno Schellenberg und F.jpg

| caption = Gret Palucca (1945)

| birth_name = Margarethe Paluka

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|01|08|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Munich, German Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1993|03|22|1902|01|08|df=yes}}

| death_place = Dresden, Germany

| nationality = German

| field = Dance

| movement = Ballet

}}

Gret Palucca (born Margarethe Paluka; 8 January 1902 – 22 March 1993) was a German dancer and dance teacher, notable for her dance school, the Palucca School of Dance, founded in Dresden in 1925.

Life and work

Margarethe Paluka was born in Munich. Shortly after birth, her family moved to San Francisco, returning with her mother to Dresden in 1909.{{cite news |date=22 March 2013 |title=Gret Palucca: Nicht nur auf Sylt unvergessen |url=https://www.shz.de/lokales/sylter-rundschau/gret-palucca-nicht-nur-auf-sylt-unvergessen-id22586.html |work=Sylter Zeitung |location=Flensburg |agency=epd |language=de |access-date=24 August 2020}} She had ballet lessons with Heinrich Kröller from 1914 to 1916 and from 1917 to 1918, she attended Margarete Balsat's school for upper-class girls in Dresden.

From 1921, when she changed her name to Gret Palucca, until 1923, she studied with Mary Wigman and she performed as a member of her Chamber Dance Group.{{cite news |last=Kachelrieß |first=Andrea |date=14 December 2009 |title=Wenn Ruhm zu einer Ware wird |url=https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.taenzerin-gret-palucca-wenn-ruhm-zu-einer-ware-wird.c3f30fa6-4e29-4a57-9f55-9581a7b68e52.html |work=Stuttgarter Nachrichten |location=Stuttgart |access-date=23 August 2020}}

In 1924, she married Friedrich Bienert, who worked in his father's mills. Through her mother-in-law, Ida Bienert, she was introduced to the Bauhaus artists.{{cite web | title=Biografie von Gret Palucca (1902–1993) – ISGV e.V. | website=Sächsische Biografie | url=https://saebi.isgv.de/biografie/Gret_Palucca_(1902-1993) | language=de | access-date=24 August 2020}}

In 1925, she opened her own dance school, the Palucca School of Dance, with the support of her husband, after which she and Mary Wigman became competitors. In 1927, she opened a branch of her school in Berlin. In 1931, another branch was opened in Stuttgart.{{NDB|20|24|25|Palucca, Gret|Stabel, Ralf|118739093}}

In 1939, because of her Jewish ancestry the National Socialist authorities closed her schools and she was not allowed to teach dance lessons, however she was permitted to continue dancing herself and in 1936 she even appeared in the Olympic Games in Berlin.{{cite news |last=Rögner |first=Katharina |date=19 March 2018 |title=Mit den Beinen denken |url=https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/kultur/mit-den-beinen-denken/ |work=Jüdische Allgemeine |location=Berlin |language=de |access-date=23 August 2020}}

In 1945, during the air raid on Dresden, Palucca lost all her possessions. After 1945, the Russian style of ballet dominated the training in Palucca school.{{Cite web|url=https://www.palucca.eu/de/hochschule/geschichte.html|title=Palucca dance school – history|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330191606/http://www.palucca.eu/de/hochschule/geschichte.html|url-status=dead}}

She became founding member of the East German Academy of Arts. In 1959, East German culture policy officials wanted to see the school transformed into a Soviet-style socialist professional school of dance. To gain support for her demands, Palucca briefly went to West Germany.{{cite news |last=Beyer |first=Susanne |date=26 March 2009 |title=Abriss eines Sehnsuchtsorts |url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/streit-um-gret-palucca-haus-abriss-eines-sehnsuchtsorts-a-615583.html |work=Der Spiegel |location=Hamburg |language=de |access-date=24 August 2020}}

In 1993, Palucca died in Dresden, aged 91.{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Jack |date=15 August 1993 |title=Who Was Gret Palucca? A Legend in Her Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/15/arts/dance-view-who-was-gret-palucca-a-legend-in-her-time.html |work=The New York Times |location=New York City |access-date=23 August 2020}}{{cite news |date=26 March 1993 |title=Famed dance teacher Gret Palucca, 91 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57900925/gret-palucca-obituary/ |work=Chicago Tribune |location=Chicago |page=101 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=23 August 2020}}

Palucca's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.{{cite book |title=Women in abstraction |date=2021 |publisher=Thames & Hudson Ltd. ; Thames & Hudson Inc |location=London : New York, New York |isbn=978-0500094372 |pages=170}}

Awards

Founding member of the German Academy of Arts, Berlin (1950, Vizepresident 1965–70)
Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste Hamburg (1965)
National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (II. class 1960 and 1976, I. class 1981)
Vaterländischer Verdienstorden of the GDR in Gold (1972)
{{ill|Martin-Andersen-Nexö-Kunstpreis|de}} of the city of Dresden (1972)
Honorary Citizen of Dresden (1979)
Stern (1980) and Großer Stern der Völkerfreundschaft of the GDR (1987)
Deutscher Tanzpreis (1983)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1992)

Legacy

Her students included Ruth Berghaus, Lotte Goslar and Dore Hoyer.{{cite book|last=Partsch-Bergsohn|first=Isa|title=Modern dance in Germany and the United States : crosscurrents and influences|year=1994|publisher=Harwood Acad. Publ.|location=Chur|isbn=3-7186-5557-8|page=122|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3718655578}}