Pola Nireńska – The Dance of Freedom
Dancer and choreographer of Jewish origin. When fascism and antisemitism lurk over Europe, she performs dance free of limitations. Her last, farewell work deals with her war trauma, showing the dramatic history of a life destroyed by totalitarian regimes.
With a rabbi's permission
She is born in 1910 in Warsaw as Pola Nirensztejn. She has been drawn to dance since childhood, but her parents, religious Jews, are not enthusiastic of such ‘indecent’ interests. Her father allows her to go on her fist dance camp only after gaining a rabbi’s permission.
Young Pola is fascinated by Mary Wigman, a German choreographer and pioneer of expressionist dance. Freedom and emotion are crucial to her technique. When young Pola wants to leave for Germany to learn from her, she fights with her parents. Eventually she gets her way. She studies at the Dresden Wigman school for three years and does a fantastic job of it. Nireńska joins the teacher’s company and dances in the US tour.
She embarks on a journey to conquer the world with a Polonised name that sounds catchier: Nireńska. However, politics get in her way. Wigman is forced to shut her school down as soon as 1933, right after Hitler comes to power. It is the first time when antisemitism overshadows Nireńska’s career.
As a consequence, Nireńska spends the next year in Warsaw, but she turns her forced comeback to the country into a success. She prepares a choreography inspired by Polish folk dances for the International Dance Congress in Vienna. This performance wins her the hearts of the critics and the main award for choreography. Rocketed to fame, she returns to Warsaw. She performs in the capital, but the atmosphere in the country thickens. Nireńska is swarmed with both admiration and malicious, antisemitic libellous claims in conservative catholic press. For this reason, she leaves Poland.
Initially she goes to Vienna again, but does not stay long. Next she moves to Florence. She performs Freie Tanz: a dance free from the rhythm of music. However, the same situation reoccurs: first comes success and then an antisemitic smear campaign. Nireńska has to flee again. This time she goes to London.
In Great Britain’s capital her life becomes more stable. She marries John Justinian de Ledesma, an actor of aristocratic origin. While in London, Nireńska meets Jan Karski, the future emissary of the Polish underground state. Their paths will cross again during the war.
After the outbreak of World War II, Nireńska’s well-boding career slows down. In 1949 she is invited to the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, one of modern dance’s most significant events. She uses this opportunity to move countries again.
Her own school in Washington
Nireńska settles in Washington and her career gains momentum again. After a few years she opens her own school, the Pola Nirenska Dance Company. She gains appreciation as a teacher. In the States she meets Karski again. Her marriage falls apart, similarly to Karski’s first marriage. They will be together until the end of Pola’s life.
At the end of the 1960s, she decides to quit dance and dedicate herself to photography. She does quite well, winning a couple of awards, and opens her own studio. But her farewell to dance does not last, especially given that she is still famous for dancing rather than photography. After nearly 15 years, Nireńska returns to choreography. She is, however, growing weaker and older.
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Meanwhile her husband, thanks to whom the West gained knowledge of the Holocaust, travels around the world and shares his war experiences. War trauma haunts Nireńska, too: many of her relatives are killed in death camps. The last work of the choreographer, now tormented by depression, is the Holocaust Tetralogy, a moving story which has no happy end. It narrates the fates of a mother and her daughters, starting with an idyllic episode, and then, in the three subsequent parts, depicting the war drama, ending with death in the extermination camp.
Nireńska dies at 81. After five unsuccessful suicide attempts, she jumps out of the window of her apartment, sick and unfulfilled.
Translated by Natalia Sajewicz
Tytuł (nagłówek do zdjęcia)
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