Luise "Niddy" Impekoven (2 November 1904 – 20 November 2002) was a German dancer of the Golden Twenties.
Impekoven took up dancing at a young age and first performed publicly in 1910. She was considered a child prodigy and received intense dance training from Heinrich Kröller[1]
and others.She danced almost exclusively to classical music. Her performances were expressionistic and sometimes humorous. Her well-known choreographies included Der gefangene Vogel, Münchner Kaffeewärmer , and Schalk. Impekoven became famous outside Germany during the 1920s, performing in Vienna and Prague.[2] By the 1930s she had toured in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Java and Ceylon.[1]
She appeared in three 1920s films, most notably Ways to Strength and Beauty.[1]
She retired from professional dancing in 1934, in part due to the Nazi seizure of power, and went on to live in Switzerland,[2] where she published her memoirs in 1955.[1]
Impekoven was born in 1904 in Berlin to Toni and Frieda Impekoven. The family later moved to Frankfurt and then Munich. In 1919 she experienced a personal crisis, suffering from depression and anorexia nervosa; her parents brought her to Bad Ragaz, Switzerland, where she recovered under the care of Reinhard Goering .[2]
She married Hans Killian[1]
in 1923 but they divorced in 1929. She died in 2002 in Bad Ragaz.