She was already a successful modern dance soloist and teacher in
Vienna when, in March 1938, Adolf Hitler declared the Anschluss,
the annexation of Austria. Stella fled to Belgium, where she
spent most of the war as a fugitive. Her Jewish parents,
meanwhile, were sent to a concentration camp and shot. Born
Stella Tuttman in Vienna on January 24 1912, she was the younger
daughter of the Singer sewing machine company’s legal adviser.
She took dancing classes at 10 from her uncle, a professional
teacher, and at 15 joined the studio of the celebrated dancer
Gertrud Kraus, who was then a prominent and outspoken radical in
the style of German expressionist modern dance. At 17 Stella was
herself teaching modern dance, and in the 1930s (using the
surname Mann) she combined this with solo performing. By 1938
she had her own dance and gymnastics school in Vienna with 500
pupils . After escaping to Belgium, she was at first able to
work freely. When that country was occupied, she and five
compatriots attempted to cross