Tilly Losch

Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon (November 15, 1903 – December 24, 1975), née Losch, was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom.

Early life

Born in Vienna to a Jewish family, Losch studied ballet from childhood at the Vienna Opera, making her student debut in 1913 in Louis Frappart's 1885 Wiener Walzer. She became a member of the corps de ballet on March 1, 1918 and a coryphee three years later. Her first solo role was the Chinese Lady Doll in Josef Hassreiter's Die Puppenfee. Ballet master Heinrich Kroeller and the Opera's co-director, composer Richard Strauss, promoted her to soloist on January 1, 1924. She danced prominently in new ballets by Kroeller, Georgi Kyaksht and Nicola Guerra. Outside the Opera, Losch took modern dance class with Grete socks Wiesenthal and Mary Wigman, and performed dramatic and movement roles in Viennese theaters, at the Salzburg Festival and in Max Reinhardt's 1924 Berlin production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, also choreographing for the Shakespeare play. Losch resigned from the Vienna Opera on August 31, 1927 in order to work more with Reinhardt at the Salzburg Festival and in New York. She also choreographed Reinhardt's Everyman and Danton's Death.