Asta Mollerup
Asta Malthea Mollerup (22 May 1881 – 25 September 1945) was a Danish dance teacher who helped bring modern dance to Denmark. Influenced by the American dancer Isadora Duncan and the German choreographer Mary Wigman, she opened her own dancing school for children in Copenhagen in 1914. In 1927 she started the Asta Mollerup School for Female Dancers (Danserindeskolen), one of Denmark’s few dedicated dancing schools besides the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
She was born in Copenhagen, the daughter of a museum director. She trained as a dancer with a Russian master in Oslo and, after returning to Copenhagen in 1914, opened a ballet and rhythmic dance school for children and young people. Until 1925 she also taught gymnastics and dance at other schools. She studied with Duncan and Lyubov Yegorova in Paris and with Wigman in Dresden, and her teaching evolved from classical ballet to more expressive modern dance.
The 1927 Danserindeskolen was special: it taught anatomy, Mensendieck gymnastics, history of dance, music, costumes and stage design, and it also offered regular school subjects like Danish, German, French, English, math, geography and cultural history. Every two years the students performed on stages in Copenhagen and the provinces. For her work with French language and culture she received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
The school flourished, especially in the 1930s. Notable students included actress Lilian Ellis, dancers Bodil Genkel and Else Knipschildt, and ballerina Nini Theilade. Her niece Mette Mollerup also attended. Asta Mollerup died in Copenhagen in 1945 and is buried in Taarbæk Cemetery.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:27 (CET).