Annelise Mertz has had a key role in the St. Louis dance scene
By Liam Otten
March 2, 2001
Annelise Mertz, professor emerita in the University's Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences, has long been a force on the St. Louis dance scene --as a teacher, as a performer and choreographer, and as a tireless champion for the arts.
Annelise Mertz has had a key role in the St. Louis dance scene |
The University will honor Mertz's distinguished career with the dedication of the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio. The Mallinckrodt Center studio is the University's primary dance rehearsal/performance space.
"Professor Mertz is one of the most dynamic and inspiring teachers ever to grace the Hilltop Campus," said Henry I. Schvey, Ph.D., chair of the PAD. "Her vitality and passion are unquenchable. The fire has never gone out and never will. She believes in the fundamental importance of dance --and, by extension, of the arts as a whole. For Annelise, dance education is not about teaching technique or creating pretty images; it is about the drama and passion of life itself."
Said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences: "Annelise has been a great advocate for the performing arts, both on campus and in the St. Louis community. Her energy and dedication have brought many fine dance concerts to Washington University over the years, and I look forward to seeing that tradition continue in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio."
Born in Berlin, Mertz trained in ballet, modern dance, Laban theory and notation and Wigman technique, pursuing graduate work with choreographer Kurt Jooss at Germany's renowned Folkwangschule. She danced professionally throughout Europe with several distinguished companies, including the Kurt Jooss Dance Theatre; the Dance Company of the State Opera, Berlin; and the Municipal Operas of Darmstadt and DŸssedorf.
Mertz immigrated to the United States in 1955, teaching at the University of Illinois-Chicago before coming to Washington University in 1957. She quickly made her mark on campus, founding and serving as artistic director of the Dance Theatre of Washington University and, in the mid-1960s, spearheading the creation both of the Dance Major Program, which she directed for some 31 years, and of the PAD itself. She also founded the Washington University Summer Dance Institute and established several off-campus programs in creative dance for both children and high school students. Additionally, Mertz has presented dance master classes in England, Germany, Holland, Israel and across the United States.
In 1966, Mertz founded and served as the first president of Dance St. Louis (originally called the Dance Concert Society), a not-for-profit organization focusing on modern dance --"an American art form then virtually unknown in St. Louis," Mertz recalled --which continues to sponsor performances by nationally known professional companies. In 1978, she founded the St. Louis Ragtime Ensemble (later the St. Louis Dancers), which, over the next decade, would perform throughout the St. Louis region and abroad, including concerts in Ireland and Germany.
As a choreographer, Mertz has earned a reputation for creating work that is imaginative and witty, yet also highly personal and possessing a great flair for the theatrical. Over the years, she has staged more than 40 original works at venues ranging from the Saint Louis Art Museum and St. Louis Opera Theatre to Cooper Union in New York City and the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin.
Though "retired" since 1990, Mertz continues to teach the course "Self Awareness Through the Body in Motion" through University College. Recently, she edited (and authored a piece for) the collection "The Body Can Speak: Essays on Creative Movement Education with an Emphasis on Dance and Drama," forthcoming from the University of Illinois-Carbondale Press.
Mertz has received numerous honors and awards over the course of her distinguished career. In 1973, she was selected as a master teacher by the National Endowment's Artists in the Schools program. In 1983, she received both the Dance St. Louis Award and the YWCA Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to the arts. In 1998, she received the Arts and Education Award for Excellence in the Arts.
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