Wolfgang Stange Slideshow

The Funeral took place on Thursday 16th January 2025 at 11am, St Andrews Church, Fulham Fields, Greyhound Road London W14 9SA, you can watch the service HERE

Our thoughts and love are with you all,

Hilary, Barb, Lynne, Elaine, Ingrid, Colm, Ali and all from Amici.

If you would like to make a donation to Amici

You can read the eulogies here:

Hilary

Dearest Wolf

It was in the late 1970s that having left the world of dance I attended one of your workshops. I met a young man with blond curls and a passion for the joy of dance regardless of abilities or limitations. You asked me to help with a class for those with limited sight. This merged with another class and Amici was born with the first Amici production in 1980.

Little did I know how your work would grow. You welcomed us into your life, and your homes here and in Sri Lanka. The following decades have been full of Amici adventures here and abroad. So many memories of workshops, classes and the chaos of production rehearsals. So much laughter and tears, so many friendships and so much spontaneity, never knowing quite what might happen on stage. You include everyone. Friends find themselves backstage, carers become cast members. 

Your courage and innovation broke through barriers in integrative dance which was in its infancy. In your productions you confront themes of profound suffering. Yet you always celebrate difference and instil hope, faith and respect for the creativity of dance and the power of community which bridges difference and unites us all.

In class I never tire of watching you with utter commitment accompanied by choral music put people together, offer a theme and the magic of dance begins. 

I am not sure you ever took on board how much you have meant to so many people here and abroad and how loved you are. Loved even for your endless stories which some of us know by heart. Loved for your generosity of spirit, your profound respect for the artistry and creativity in every soul, and your utter devotion in bringing it into being so that each person shines in their difference.

Thank you, Wolf, for your generosity, courage and faith in each of us. Thank you for your friendship, love and for letting me be one among many who you welcomed into your life. I will miss you so very much.

I don’t know Wolf if you are busy forming an Amici company with those who have left us, yelling at the angels to get back in line with your beloved George at your side.  What I do know is about the huge legacy you have left here on earth.

Our first production was called “I am not yet dead”. How true those words are. You may not be with us, but your creativity continues in the hearts and bodies of us all, here and worldwide.

Amici and Young Amici will continue, and the next production will take place in October, yet your work goes far beyond this.  

In 2023 Amici celebrated its 40th anniversary with a production called “One World: the strength of the common people”. We were joined onstage and in workshops by members of other companies inspired by your work. Here are some of the other voices from One World which are echoed by many.

Nao

I first met Wolfgang in Japan when I was very young. My sister Chihiro had been attending his workshops since she was 7.  She turned 47 a couple of weeks ago.

Our mum says Chihiro was either sat or crawling on the floor at the workshops for the first 5 years. The second time I met him was when I first came to London with my brother in 1998.

I was a singer and my brother guitarist back then. We went to AMICI’s regular meeting several times but then got too busy with our music. 8 years on, I suddenly thought of AMICI while pondering about my career as a musician. So I went to Lyric to say hello, where I found them in the production of “Elegy”. 

When Wolfgang saw me he said “You are a singer. Can you do something for this scene.” 

It was a scene where Rosie performed her poem, for which Wolfgang had not been able to find music he liked. I improvised with Rosie. After the scene ended, Wolfgang asked me to be part of the show. I said yes and my journey with AMICI began. 

Then in 2010 Wolfgang suggested that my sister be part of Tightrope.  Our parents brought her over from Japan. Our dad who'd been supportive but not particularly interested, got totally mesmerised by AMICI magic at the first rehearsal, and never missed one thereafter. 

Then in 2011, when we went to Germany to perform, my brother filled in for a cellist who was not available, with his guitar. My sister who spent her first years at Wolf’s workshops crawling on the floor, now dances with joy and confidence. She often expresses her gratitude to Wolfgang and AMICI for allowing this to happen.

Each member of our family has received gifts from Wolfgang and AMICI. We feel truly privileged to be part of his art, and hope to be able to carry his legacy forward for the generations to come.

Karen

Isn't it uncanny how you remember meeting someone for the first time? It was the late 80's I wore a Lycra leotard, shell suit and Reebok high tops and drove 90 miles in my Original VW Beetle to attend a 2 day creative movement course with Wolfgang Stange, well the rest is history. 

Inspired by Wolfgang and Amici a few years later I founded Indepen-dance, and over the past 29 years we've worked on many creative projects together, the last being One World. I am proud to say we are part of this creative community and beautifully connected.  

We may not be able to share a laugh, a story or one of your amazing curry's Wolfgang, I hope your soul is dancing with your beloved George and those gone before you 

but I know your Spirt lives on in all of us and the people we pass on your teaching too, lots of love from myself and Wils who are here today and all at Indepen-dance and the wider Scottish Dance Community. 

We are blessed to have met you. 

Lyn

I am a ripple.

In 1995 I sat in a room with a group of students from Paddock Special School. As a teacher new to the world of both disability and dance I had no expectations.

Wolfgang began improvising a dance with our student Ricky and the white flower he had picked on the way into class. It was gentle, full of curiosity to connect and delight in the creative possibilities of the moment. It was the most beautiful artistic moment I had ever experienced. It encapsulated everything I believed about humanity and creativity. In that moment I knew with absolute certainty this was what I wanted to do with my life.  

Wolfgang welcomed me into Amici and I spent 2 ½ years learning all I could. Returning home I set up Jolt which is now the largest inclusive dance company in New Zealand. Wolfgang continued to be both friend and mentor, visiting in 2018 to see our work and we in turn danced with Amici in “One World” bringing our connection full circle.

I have never forgotten Rickys dance. It lives within me just as tangibly now as it did nearly 30 years ago and continues to inform my work. It also lives within our Jolt community. We are a Wolfgang ripple – a cascading, joyous ripple full of love for people, music, the power of connection and the limitless potential of the individual

A ripple without end

With deepest gratitude and love to my mentor and friend

Estuko

I brought 'Senba-zuru', thousand paper cranes, from Japan.

In Japan, we make senba-zuru when we want to show or send our prays for something or someone. For example, there are a lot of senba-zuru at The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Back to this one, People who sheared Wolf's mind made these cranes one by one with thanks, love, and tears. This senba-zuru show a wish of many many Japanese who danced with Wolfgang. The wish is what he taught us, forever.

Yuko

Hi, Wolfgang,

I never imagined myself writing a message for your funeral. It is so hard to accept that I won’t see you again. I believe everyone is feeling the same way. But, knowing who you are, you must be flying among us, trying to console our grieving hearts.

Wolfgang, please don’t worry. Your spirit has deeply taken root in us, nurtured through your Dance Dynamics workshops. We can still feel you beside us. We will make sure that the magical moments you created continue to touch people’s hearts.

I met you in April 1989. From that day I visited your flat in Barons Court, London, we worked together for 35 years. If there is one thing I could take pride in, it is having introduced you to the people in Japan. Together, we held your workshops in Tokyo and other cities across Japan. In Fukuoka, we even staged an Amici production.

You loved Japan, which meant you loved the Japanese people you encountered. Similarly, the Japanese participants in your workshops admired and loved you. I heard that Etsuko Tanaka will bring senbazuru, a thousand origami cranes, made by past Japanese participants to the service. Many of us in Japan thought of you while folding the paper cranes.

It is heartbreaking that you have left this physical world, but your spirit, and the moving moments you constantly created in your Dance Dynamics workshops, live on in us. Now, it is our turn to share your legacy with even more people. I am proud of the 35 years I have worked together with you. It was undoubtedly a special and enriching time for the Japanese participants as well.

Wolfgang, thank you very much for everything.

Yuko Ijichi

Founder and Director, Muse Company

Alison King

I stand here before you all to deliver something that I know we all hoped would be many years in the future.  I am also up here as Wolfgang told me I was to do this and as we all know you rarely if ever said no to Wolf!  I am not sure what else I can say that hasn’t been said in the last few weeks since Wolf passed or indeed will be said and shared today, as we come together to honour and celebrate his life.

Our beloved Wolf, Wolfie, Stange, Strange and my ET has left us and left us all bereft.

We must focus on what this incredible man meant to us and to so many people across the whole world.

Few people have the impact that Wolfgang had, an impact he would never recognise. Few people make such a real difference to so many people and those smiles, dances, glances, wise words, touches, laughs, stern words and love allowed people to truly reveal and revel in themselves to surrender individually and to the whole.

I am not a religious person but in Wolfgang we had a rare gift, an Angel, who went about his work and business with his own brand of bluntness, compassion, care, generosity of spirit, humour and wonder, changing the world, one class, one improvisation and one dance at a time.

With Wolfgang in the world it always seemed that anything was possible and to always expect the unexpected and you would be amazed, inspired and quite frankly in awe.

Whilst you were busy tearing up or exclaiming he would look at you and with a snort say ‘what is the matter with you’. A cry many of us heard often!

It was never about him, it was about everyone else, but yet he was our centre. Wolfgang lit up a room, any room, with his energy, spirit, grace, humour, wit, cleverness and kind nature.

He really did love everyone and gave everyone a chance. Everyone was accepted for who they were and respected. He would pull you up, tell you off but In a way that ultimately made us all better people.  Looking out today I can see testament to that and I charge all of you to always hold onto ‘what would Wolfgang do’ and just maybe, maybe we can make this crazy world a better place.

He had a magic and an energy that was indescribable, but also a grit and steely character, which stood for no nonsense and a twinkle of mischief in his brilliant blue eyes and around his mouth.

Wolfgang as you know told many brilliant, long and detailed stories and I used to love hearing them.

He told me once, that his Mother had said to him

“Education is the most important but without the education of the heart (Herzensbildung) it has little worth.” (Sorry I do not speak German to say it as he did)

Wolfgang was all heart and compassion seeing potential in others that would have so often been overlooked.

He dedicated his life, over 50 years of it to teaching and sharing dance and inclusive practice. As you know Wolfgang was born in Berlin in 1947, a witness to the suffering of war he was profoundly influenced by Hilda Holger his first dance teacher. Hilde a Viennese survivor of the Nazi atrocities influenced him and many others, She taught him his first lesson when he stood in her little office in Camden Town. “ What is your profession she asked Wolf?“- he replied shyly “I am a chef” and she said  “Oh, I never had a dancing chef before“  His shyness took over and he said “I think I am too old for this.“ Hilda replied ‘If you think you are too old, don‘t waste my time, there is the door. You are never too old if you really want to do something.“

Wolf always said this was his first lesson, not too old, not too disabled not to be too different if….and thank goodness for all of us he carried on…..  going on to train at the London Contemporary Dance School.

Prior to coming to the UK in the late 60’s Wolfgang worked as a chef for the British armed forces in Berlin. One day the Major asked him to make a soup, Wolf did not know how to do this and threw lots of ingredients into the pot. The next day the Major asked for it again because he had enjoyed it so much and Wolf did not have a clue what he had put in it!

After meeting George in May 1970, Wolfgang lived in the UK  dividing his time between the UK and Sri Lanka alongside his lifelong partner George Beven, the tap dancer, renowned Sri Lankan artist and Wolfgang’s rock. 

Wolfgang and George were together for over 50 years and were a real example of a true partnership and love, something again some of us can only aspire to our whole lives.

George loved Wolfgang fiercely, he was protective of him and easily annoyed when people took advantage of Wolfgang’s generosity, good will, and openness. I think that is where George and I really connected and bonded. I understood how special Wolfgang was. There a was such a deep love, friendship, and enduring bond between them.

They were hilarious to watch, a true double act, if you were close enough to them you would catch George’s sharp acerbic wit and humour in clever asides, that used to send  anyone in ear shot into peals of laughter and Wolfgang’s equally pithy response delivered with humour and a twinkle.

Wolf always told this story about him and George which I love, Wolfgang had got really annoyed with George over something (which I now cannot remember) and threatened to leave George, George just calmy offered to fetch him a suitcase and help him pack, of course the brilliance of that spoke volumes and played right into Wolf’s sense of humour.

Wolfgang believed that a good teacher is not a person who passes all the tests, but one who shows humility and is willing to learn from their students. Wolf always remembered after Amici’s  first performance of Rückblick at the Place in 1982 a member of the audience wrote the following to him– “ “I was amazed by the oneness of it all. Each individual surrendered to the whole and yet each became more of an individual and not less because of this surrender. It meant each member was allowed to be themselves within the structure of the piece”

This was and remains the philosophy of AMICI . . Wolfgang and AMICI inspired people in several countries and not only spread the word of inclusion, but created their own inclusive companies. Sri Lanka, Japan, New Zealand, USA, Scotland and Wales, Austria and Germany as well as closer to home and all across London and England.

Wolfgang was visionary and groundbreaking in placing utter faith and respect in the potential of everyone to dance regardless of personal, emotional or physical limitation. I witnessed this first hand and the impact and profound effect he could and would have on people. I was fortunate to work with him closely on many projects in many different parts of the world. These projects fundamentally changed me and my approach to working with people, truly realising the impossible was possible, always, Wolfgang and I  could definitely egg each other on In that regard and very often did!

Two stories spring to mind that I will share with you…….

When we were in  America working with Brio Theatre co  there were these two severely physically  disabled young people with very limited mobility and strength. Wolfgang worked with them, trying so many things, then with an improvisation involving our pizza boxes from lunch, a spontaneous moment  enabled the young people to move and lift their heads and interact in a way that had not happened all week, a shining example of the magic he created and all with a pizza box!

Another story, when we were In Japan we were at this outstanding well equipped institution and one young man just walked around the walls pacing and that’s all he did, he was hard to engage and connect with. Wolf in his own ini-mit-able style would not be perturbed or discouraged and in about 15 minutes had this young man doing a beautiful expressive duet with him in the middle of the room, we were all a wreck!

We will, I know all have stories of Wolf’s magic and the magic of his teachings, his kindness and his abilities.  From a stick, mask, flower, pizza box, piece of cloth, a fan, ribbon and much more or less, Wolf cleverly made dance and art happen.  His ability to select just the right piece of music to evoke that emotion is unparalleled.

If you were ever out with Wolfgang at a show or an event it was like being with royalty, everyone seemed to know him and want to speak to him or hug him!  One day at the Place people were clambering over seats to reach him!

Wolf first appreciated the possibilities of dance whilst in Sri Lanka.

 In his own words he said

“I went to a Christmas party in Negombo at the Cheshire Home for the disabled. While the rest of the audience watched local school children performing, I was watching the residents of the Home - and wondered how it must feel to always be on the other side of the fence, to be excluded. That's when I decided to concentrate on investigating the possibilities of dance more carefully, creating a different form of dance theatre.

Back in Britian he began to work Gina Levette who founded Shape, Wolfgang taught dance and movement sessions his first being for people with severe learning difficulties at Normansfield Hospital. He also worked with Psychiatric and cardiac patients at Charing Cross, (where he ultimately received his treatment) prisons and mental health institutions and day centres. Wolfgang's success was such that he was soon teaching classes to groups with learning and/or physical difficulties in a range of venues, sometimes including aspiring dancers without disabilities, social workers and other health professionals. As you know as a result of all of this work In 1980 Wolfgang founded Amici Dance Theatre Company bringing together two separate classes one of VIP and  Blind students and one of able bodied dancers. The Show ‘I am not yet Dead’ saw the birth of Amici, which will celebrate 45 years together as a company this year. Wolfgang’s creative honesty speaks to the triumph of humanity, compassion, care, love and hope over brutality and adversity. Audiences often leave his shows, exhausted, moved but enheartened.

 A Journalist said of Wolf

“What some might see as disabilities, Stange sees as traits to be harnessed and used. He’s a showman, wholly unsentimental, with an exceptional gift for drawing truthful performances from his cast. He’s also one of British theatre’s great unsung heroes. Few artists make a real difference. Stange has.” – Luke Jennings, The Observer

In 1982 Sir Ben Kingsley collaborated with Wolfgang for a TV play called “Feel Free” by Nick Darke based on Wolfgang’s work and In  the wake of the film Sir  Ben Kingsley was asked to be a patron of Amici, which he took as the greatest compliment. Sir Ben said Wolfgang affected everyone who had the great fortune to be in his sphere, something we can all agree on.

In 1993 Wolfgang won the Vaslav Nijinsky award from the Polish Artists Agency for his choreography of “The Journey” which was performed in Warsaw as well as London. Wolfgang was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Roehampton University in 2023 and a lifetime achievement award from Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council in 2022, where he taught, lived and worked for over 40 years.  When he received his doctorate he said to me “darling send someone else” not wanting to accept the huge honour and privilege that it was, we had a battle as for Wolf it was never about the accolades.  As honoured as he was it just shows you what really mattered to him.

Wolfgang became an acclaimed workshop leader and dance director across the world. In Sri Lanka he created four productions for the Butterfly Theatre Company with the Sunera Foundation working with refugees, disabled soldiers, ex-Tamil fighters and Tsunami survivors. His work has touched the hearts of so many.

Wolfgang loved Sri Lanka and fully adopted and embraced it as his second home, his spirit home I believe. His family and heart and home were there. If you had the privilege to visit him and George there you were treated to unrivalled hospitality and generosity and it was so special to see this beautiful country through their eyes.

I have such fond memories of many of Wolf’s famous curries and cannot believe that we will not eat one of them again either in Sir Lanka or at Baron’s court. Or of sipping Arrak on their porch in Sri Lanka and experiencing Wolf’s Christmas eve parties that definitely would have made any health and safety officer shut him down immediately!

A perk to working with Wolfgang was the meetings over a curry!

Wolfgang did things his way and in his own in-dom-itable style.

When faced with the adversity of finding funding, or a venue, or flying a wheelchair user over the stage or in Trafalgar Sq or getting a wheelchair up five flights of stairs he would simply  say “we will find a way” and we always did.

 He would look at you and say “What is the meaning of this”, he would challenge silly rules and processes and stand for no nonsense. He stood up for what was right and even challenged a representative of the arts council who mistakenly misinterpreted his work, he shouted at her absurdity, she got indigent, and it meant we didn’t get funding for several years but Wolf’s integrity was preserved!

He would organise everyone in the room or on the bus if we were travelling, making sure you all had seats and food and were comfortable, always bossy in his own charming way!

He would cajole you with his famous ‘Darling, darling and come hurtling back-stage to always say “toi toi toi” spitting it into everyone’s ear before they went on stage. If you dared complain about your costume, make up or where you were standing on the stage he would say “Darling who’s going to look at you” so always keeping even the biggest personalities in order!

Wolfgang’s passionate humanity, profound respect for each individual and strong sense of the power of community resonated in everything he did. He truly changed people’s lives.

Wolfgang’s passing is a great loss, but his legacy remains alive within the hearts and bodies of so many people around the world.

Finally I think I have to end this and let the man himself have the last word/s that seems fitting and before I sign off from Wolfgang do remember his orders that we all need to dance out……… his words not mine and please take a magic pen with you, and like Wolf use the pen to create equality, fairness and equity in our world.

I will miss him dearly, my Enfant terrible, a wonderful nickname he gave himself when he was busy doing what he shouldn’t and I shall miss hearing him call me his Darling Ali San.

Wolfgang’s creativity, compassion, care and humanity remains. This dance will continue… We will miss him dearly and cherish him always.

Anyway In Wolfgang’s own words I leave you with this……..

“Without hope we would be very lost indeed. Even with the tragic conflicts and wars going on, we must have hope, hope for a better future, I do hope Amici will continue just being Amici carrying on with the basic philosophy that we all share and hoping new people that have not seen the company will learn and realise that acceptance of differences is our only salvation.

Toi toi toi …………………….to you all