[LEN-E] The Wandering Wallpaper

[Ron Koster]

Hi folks!

As we all know, there's been a lot of controversy 
about whether or not Leni appeared in the 1925 
film, "Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit", and among 
those who believe she did there's even more 
controversy about where in the film one might 
find her. Steven Bach, for example, claims that 
he has "proof" that she was semi-nude in the 
Roman bath scenes (although I personally disagree 
with this), and then there are others who say 
that she is among the group of Mary Wigman's 
dancers -- and there is indeed a frequently 
published production still of that scene which 
includes someone who does look like they *might* be Leni.

Whatever the case may be -- whether this latter 
photo does indeed include Leni or not -- even 
still Mary Wigman's dance school (and dance 
troupe) is of curiosity to many people interested 
in Leni Riefenstahl, if only because Wigman was 
perhaps the most famous proponent of 
expressionist dance from that period, and with 
Leni having attended her famous dance school in 
Dresden, naturally Wigman could only have had some sort of influence on her.

And so, with that said, allow me to present "The Wandering"...

http://www.riefenstahl.org/downloads/wallpaper/The_Wandering-preview.html

...(ignore the "close" button at the bottom of 
the page, as this page is designed to be a pop-up preview page).

This is, of course, a colourized version (with 
some artistic license) of the aforementioned 
production still, created from an original 1925 
postcard with that photo. This is also the first 
piece of artwork that I've done up for download 
as desktop wallpaper at sizes larger than 
1024x768, too -- you'll note that a widescreen 
version is available as well (scroll down from 
the top for a preview, plus the appropriate 
download links). At the bottom of the page is a 
scan of the original postcard that I started from.

Anyway, there you go! Leni is often thought to be 
the woman on the ground -- but that's entirely up 
to you whether you want to believe that or not. 
However, what I *can* say with some assurance is 
that the second (or perhaps third) woman from the 
top left, in the back row, is most *definitely* 
Gret Palucca, who also studied with Wigman at the 
same time as Leni (and who Leni mentions in her 
autobiography), and who later went on to attain 
her own great fame (almost on par with Wigman), 
also opening up her own noteworthy dance school. 
So Leni may or may not be there in this photo, 
but Gret most definitely is (as I said, I'm 
pretty sure she's the second woman from the top 
left, but I could be wrong and she might be the third).

Ron :)

Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com
Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org
Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca