Faculty

Margit Legler

Teacher of Historical Performance Practice - Movement and Gestures⋅Department Early Music

In the course of her extensive training in dance, Margit Legler specialised in historical performance practices (dance, singing, acting). She has staged baroque operas for the Tokyo College of Music, the Handel Festival Halle, the Schlosstheater Ballenstedt, and the Barocktheater Stift Lambach, among others. She has taught historical dance at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna since 2006 and at the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera since 2010. She is Professor of Historical Dance and Period Acting Techniques at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and has also been active at the Mozarteum University Salzburg since 2011.

Iin the spirit of historical performance practice, she performs as both a dancer and a singer, and gives workshops in Austria and throughout Europe.

Professional training in stage dance (stage qualification diploma, Vienna): Classical ballet with Violanta Stromeyer de Raulino (Vienna), Solange Golovin (Paris), Maggie Black (New York); modern dance with Louis Gonzales (Horton technique, Laban Centre London), Julio Enrique Rivera (Horton technique, New York), Jeanne Ruddy (Graham technique, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, New York); flamenco with José de Udaeta, María Mercedes León, Nina Corti; historical dance with Eva Campianu (Baroque dance, Vienna).

Specialisation in historical performance practice (dance, singing, acting): Voice training with Susan Dennis Gabriel (Vienna); vocal studies in early music with various teachers, including Inger Wierød (Denmark).

International studies in historical dance: Baroque dance in France (Francine Lancelot, Béatrice Massin, Ana Yepes, Christine Bayle, and with the Companie Ris et Danceries); Renaissance dance in Italy (Andrea Francalanci, Barbara Sparti); study of historical acting techniques in England (Dene Barnett, Ian Caddy) and France (Béatrice Cramoix).

Studies in speech and language therapy at the Vienna General Hospital (AKH Wien), diploma thesis (2006): “Musical abilities in different aphasia syndromes”; specialisation in breathing techniques and vocal therapy.

Performing: 1985–1987 dancer at the Vienna State Opera. Projects with the choreographer Bernd Roger Bienert (Vienna) and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dance performances in historically informed productions, including Danze Antiche (Vienna); Passo Ostinato (Ghent); Hortus Musicus (Tallinn); BarockTanzTheater Bremen; Cantus Thuringia & Capella (Weimar); I Confidenti (Berlin); and appearances as a singer in concerts and opera productions.
Founding of the ensembles L’Azione Teatrale (historical drama, together with Reinhold Kubik, 1997) and Les plaisirs de la danse (historical dance, 2005) for the performance of musical stage works in period style (e.g. Il parnaso confuso by Gluck, Il trionfo d’Amore by Gassmann).
Teaching: Since 1992, together with Reinhold Kubik, numerous workshops on “Gesture and Dramatic Art of the 17th and 18th Centuries for Singers” in Germany and internationally, including Vienna, Innsbruck, Graz, Salzburg, Karlsruhe, Michaelstein (Harz), Weimar, Leipzig, Berlin, Potsdam, Basel, Utrecht, Český Krumlov, Antwerp, London, Oxford, Montpellier, Tokyo and Aarhus.

Lectureships in historical dance at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (1989–2009), at the Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera (2010–2020), and at the Mozarteum University Salzburg (since 2013); lectureship in historical acting and gesture (period acting techniques) at the Mozart Opera Institute of the Mozarteum University Salzburg (since 2011).

Since 2006 lecturer in historical dance in the dance programme at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna; since 2015 Professor of Historical Dance and Period Acting Techniques (historical acting and gesture) in the dance and early music programmes, as well as stage dance for singers in the vocal studies and opera programmes.
Productions: 1994 The Magic Flute (Mozart, Tokyo, with Josef Wallnig); 1998 Il parnaso confuso (Gluck, Budapest, with Reinhold Kubik); 2000 Il trionfo d’Amore (Gassmann, Schlosstheater Ballenstedt, with Reinhold Kubik); 2001 Dido and Aeneas (Purcell, Weimar, with Bernhard Klapprott); 2008 Dido and Aeneas (Purcell, Handel Festival Halle / Goethe-Theater Bad Lauchstädt, with Bernhard Klapprott); 2009 Il parnaso confuso (Gluck, Salzburg, Schönbrunn Palace, Hof, with Josef Wallnig); 2012 Ino (Telemann, Budapest, with Reinhard Goebel); 2012 Il parnaso confuso (Gluck, Aarhus, Grenå, Give, Denmark, with Reinhold Kubik); 2013 Il giuoco del quadriglio (Caldara, Salzburg, with Josef Wallnig); 2014 La corona (Gluck, Salzburg, with Josef Wallnig).
2017/18 Lucio Cornelio Silla (Handel; International Handel Festival Göttingen / Schlosstheater Ludwigsburg, with Dorothee Oberlinger); 2018 Bach BWV 66a (Köthen Bach Festival, with Alexander Grychtolik); 2019 Polifemo (Bononcini; Music Festival Potsdam Sanssouci / Margravial Opera House Bayreuth, with Dorothee Oberlinger); 2022 L’Etearco (Giovanni Bononcini; “Resonances”, Konzerthaus Vienna, with Alexandra Helldorff).