Foreword by Claire Rousier
Introduction, translation and notes by Philippe Ivernel
Actress, and pioneer of modern dance, Gertrud Valesca Samosch, born in Berlin in 1892, better known as Valeska Gert, talks about her adventurous life. In the famous cabaret that she ran in Berlin she developed a strong, brazen critique of petit-bourgeois society. A victim of Nazi persecution, she emigrated for some time to the United States where she created new unconventional cabarets.
A multidisciplinary artist, she met well-known figures like Brecht, Eisenstein, Meyerhold, G.W. Pabst, Jean Renoir, Greta Garbo and Tennessee Williams. She was seen much later in films such as Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits or Schlöndorff’s Coup de Grâce.
But this book is more than a mere autobiographical account: it also contains Valeska Gert’s ideas on art and dance aesthetics, which even today remain truly revolutionary.