Jean Weidt(1904-1988)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jean was a
German dancer and choreographer. He first danced with a youth folk
dance troupe and later studied with Leeder and Olga Brandt-Knaack. He
gave his first solo concert in Hamburg in 1925, including the first
version of his signature piece, The Worker. In the same year he formed
his own company, with which he moved to Berlin in 1929 where it became
known as the Red Dancers. The political content of his works grew
stronger with the rise of fascism and he was briefly arrested in 1933.
He then lived and worked in Moscow, Prague, and Paris, continuing to
choreograph work with intense political and humanitarian concerns, such
as The Cell (1947). From 1948 to 1950 he directed the Dramatic Ballet
at the Volksbühne in E. Berlin, then worked at opera houses in Schwerin
and Karl-Marx-Stadt and at Berlin's Komische Oper (1958-66 and
1978-80).