Gret Palucca

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. 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

In 1993, Palucca died in Dresden, aged 91.

Palucca's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.

Awards Founding member of the German Academy of Arts, Berlin (1950, Vizepresident 1965–70)