In 1972, Margret Dietz died, and my path veered. I wasn’t the only one pulled into new directions by her magnetism. This year, 38 years after her death, three of my fellow pathfinders from that time have published a book about Margret’s remarkable life and gifts — and influence. By gathering interviews, photographs, documents, & remembrances, they’ve pieced together a narrative that captures who she was: a powerful choreographer, a vivid woman, a lifelong explorer, a spell-binding dancer & a master teacher, spinning the silk threads of her dance classes just so — in order to capture us all in the web of dance.
Margret Dietz: A Dancer’s Legacy, by Elizabeth Freeman, Marie Nickell, and Linda Lee Soderstrom, follows Margret’s time under her mentor Mary Wigman… her passion for justice as a survivor of World War II… her years teaching in higher education at the University of Illiinois, University of California, DePauw University, and University of Minnesota, with stops along the way at the American Dance Festival and Connecticut College… her final years of building her own studio & company in Minneapolis. Her story is interesting, the story of any artist, finding a way to pursue passion throughout a lifetime.
But Margret was a teacher, and this is a book to inspire any teacher. Her classes were performances, but not just for her. Within the course of a class, Margret swept & coaxed & nudged & transformed her students from wherever they started to the soaring level of fully committed dancers. A Dancer’s Legacy succeeds best in its descriptions of Margret’s teaching style, and it’s invaluable as a signpost pointing the way to good teaching. I’m glad to be reminded so vividly why I teach dance. It’s all been coming back to me this summer, reading Margret Dietz: A Dancer’s Legacy.
Back to June of 1972. Having just graduated from college, I was working as a summer intern in Washington, D.C. when news came of Margret’s death — so early, so young, as she was finally working with her own company. I finished the summer & returned to Minneapolis to capture what I could of Margret’s influence from those who’d worked most closely with her, among others whose lives changed directions when they met her.
I love summer reading …what more could I ask than a return to where I came from & a reminder of why I’m here? But I think this is summer reading for others too, even if meeting Margret for the first time. The photographs are fabulous, and the descriptions of excellent teaching work for any subject, where you can arrive as a novice & experience the joy of success.
Thanks to my sister, for finding the book & bringing it to me!
