Tänzerin Maja Lex (1906 ─ 1986)

The dancer Maja Lex. Günther-Schule, 1920s | src Carl Orff Stiftung

In Munich, Maja Lex was first a student member but soon, together with Gunild Keetmann and the founders Dorothee Günther and Carl Orff, belonged to the leading teaching staff of the Günther-Schule, a forward-looking school with a trebly diversified training concept of integrative musical and movement education. War events disrupted this unique constellation of artistic and educational personalities.

Maja  Lex developed a new movement and dance education of a timeless pedagogic and artistic value. She liberated herself from the formalized practice/exercise/training and introduced instead the varied movements of rhythmic-dynamic, spatial and formal variation. Structured improvisation, similar to musical improvisation, was established as a definite component of the teaching lesson.

As a solo dancer and choreographer of Tanzgruppe Günther, Maja Lex was a pioneer of the New German Dance (Neuer Deutscher Tanz) in the 1930s. She created a specific dancing style of a ‘thrilling rhythmic intensity’, a definite feeling for form and a high technical dancing discipline. Music and dance became elements of equal value, not least because of the use of rhythm instruments for the dance and for the orchestra of Günther-Schule, where dancers and musicians changed roles. The director of the orchestra was Gunild Keetmann. Maja Lex’s dances belong to the absolute dance. / quoted from Elementarer Tanz

German dancer and choreographer Maja Lex, 1931 | src alamy
Maja Lex. Günther Schule, München, 1924 (Fotografer/in unbekannt) | src Bassenge Auktion 121
Portrait of Maja Lex (1906 ─ 1986), 1920s | src Elementarer Tanz

From 1927, Maja Lex performed her own choreographies. As a soloist and choreographer of the Tanzgruppe Günther-München (lead by Dorothee Günther), she made her decisive breakthrough in 1930 with the “Barbarian Suite” in collaboration with the musical director of the group, the composer Gunild Keetman. Numerous guest performances and awards at home and abroad followed until the school was forcibly closed in 1944 and finally destroyed in 1945.

Maja Lex, who had been very ill since the beginning of the 1940s, moved to Rome in 1948 and lived there together with Dorothee Günther in the house of her mutual friend Myriam Blanc. At the beginning of the 1950s Maja Lex resumed her artistic-pedagogical work and taught at the German Sport University Cologne at the invitation of Liselott Diem. From the mid-1950s until 1976, she taught the main training subject “Elementary Dance” as a senior lecturer. The concept of elementary dance was further developed by her and later in collaboration with her successor Graziela Padilla at the German Sports University Cologne. / quoted from queer places

Charlotte Rudolph (1896-1983) ~ The German dancer and choreographer Maja Lex, ca. 1930 | src alamy
Siegfried Enkelmann ~ Maja Lex. Günther-Schule, ca. 1930 | src alamy
Maja Lex. Ross Verlag Postcard 755 A (Foto: Siegfried Enkelmann, Berlin) | src eBay
Charlotte Rudolph (1896-1983) ~ The German dancer and choreographer Maja Lex, ca. 1930 | src alamy
Maja Lex (1906 ─ 1986) Günther-Schule, München, um 1924 | src Elementarer Tanz
Maja Lex (1906 – 1986) in the front cover of Der Tanz (photo by Umbo), Dez. 1935 | src alamy

Apoll und Daphne · 1938

Siegfried Enkelman ~ Diasy Spies und Werner Stammer in ihrem Tanz ‘Apoll und Daphne’. Das Kleine Magazin B14 H14 (1938)
Siegfried Enkelman ~ Diasy Spies und Werner Stammer in ihrem Tanz ‘Apoll und Daphne’. Das Kleine Magazin B14 H14 (1938)
Siegfried Enkelman ~ Diasy Spies, Werner Stammer, Meistertänzer am Deutschen Opernhaus, Berlin in ihrem Tanz ‘Apoll und Daphne’. Das Kleine Magazin B14 H14 (1938)

Helga Golze um 1940

Variety artist Helga Golze (*1924), the “Jump wonder” “Helgina” from Berlin. Gelatin silver prints. Around 1940 | src JVV

Some stamped on the reverse and / or on the recto with the photographer’s signature of S. Enkelmann (partially on Agfa Brovira photo paper) and Foto-Schreyer Berlin. (JVV)

Varieté Künstlerin Helga Golze (*1924), dem “Spring-Wunder” “Helgina” aus Berlin. Silbergelatineabzüge. Um 1940 | src Jeschke Jádi Auktionen Berlin (JVV)

‘Der Idiot’, 1952

Siegfried Enkelmann :: ‘Der Idiot’, 1952. Dancers Wiet Pilar and Harald Horn from the Berlin Ballet performing a scene from „The Idiot“, a ballet based on Dostoyevsky’s novel. Print annotated in pencil (on verso) | src eBay

Dore Hoyer „Ophelia“, 1941

Siegfried Enkelmann :: Dance portrait of Dore Hoyer as „Ophelia“, 1941. Vintage gelatin silver print. (detail) | src eBay
Siegfried Enkelmann :: Dore Hoyer „Ophelia“, 1941. Tanz des Whansinns. Musik: Debussy (annotated on filing card). Vintage gelatin silver print. | src eBay

A.von Swaine in ‘De Profundis’

Siegfried Enkelmann :: Alexander von Swaine in ‘De Profundis’, 1937. Original Print (detail). | src eBay
Siegfried Enkelmann :: Alexander von Swaine in ‘De Profundis’, 1937. Original Print. | src eBay
Iconic portrait of dancer Alexander von Swaine. This image was chosen as the cover of a catalog produced for Enkelmann’s retrospective in Munich in April – June 1978 | src eBay

Tana Herzberg in Schwarze Sonne

Siegfried Enkelmann :: Tänzerin Tana Herzberg als Klytämnestra in «Schwarze Sonne» (Black Sun), 1932. (Musik: Heinz Friedrich Hartig) | src Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln

«Engel des Schweigens», 1953

Siegfried Enkelmann :: Harald Kreutzberg in «Engel des Schweigens» (Angel of Silence), 1953. Vintage gelatin silver print. | src eBay