Dresden. He was a representative of the old school. Always in a tie and collar, always upright and always proud of what he was doing. Rainer Graf lived and loved dancing, which he was born with. On July 15, Rainer Graf died in Dresden at the age of 76 after a brief, serious illness.
At the age of six, Rainer Graf tried hard to imitate his parents’ dance steps. Werner and Elfriede founded the Graf dance school on Leisniger Strasse in Pieschen in Dresden in 1956, which he took over in 1984 and helped shape it for decades.
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“He was an absolute icon in the industry”
With his death, an era ends after more than half a century. “The Graf Tanzschule was without a doubt one of the top addresses and for a long time was one of the most renowned dance schools in the city,” says Jens Pötschke, dance teacher from Pirna and regional director of the General German Dance Teachers Association. “Rainer Graf was an absolute icon in the industry.”
Graf was born in 1944 in Lawalde in the district of Görlitz. At the age of eleven he moved to Dresden with his parents and showed his talent for dancing here at an early age. In 1964 he passed the dance teacher examination.
Rainer Graf demonstrated his talent for dancing at a young age. © private
Graf and various partners were GDR champions over a dozen times. He also won the Zwinger Cup several times from 1972, including with his second wife Dorit, who later founded her own dance school in Riesa and retired last year.
Graf got involved far beyond his own dance school. Among other things, he was a training teacher for theory in Saxony and tournament director of the dance festival in the Kulturpalast. In 1987 he founded the 1. Dresdner Rock’n’Roll-Club.
Graf won more than a dozen GDR championship titles with various partners. Here he dances with his first wife Heidemarie. © private
After Graf separated from his third wife Ines in 2011, he officially handed the dance school over to Sabine and Tassilo Lax, who liked to step in the breach. Nevertheless, Rainer Graf continued to teach and only withdrew gradually. Up until four years ago he was standing on the floor leading senior groups.
Graf won the kennel cup several times with his second wife Dorit. The photo shows the two of them in 1975. © private
While his younger daughter Dana inherited his wanderlust, worked for airlines for a long time and is now employed by Deutsche Bahn in Berlin, his older daughter Kay found her way to dance herself and now teaches at a dance school in Brandenburg, which she shares with her Mother Heidemarie, Graf’s first wife.
That, and her two children, who were still small at the time, were the reasons why she decided against taking over the dance school in Dresden herself in 2011. “In a way, however, I’m still continuing my father’s tradition,” she says. “That’s a nice thought.”
Rainer Graf is to be buried in a small circle in the St. Markus cemetery in Pieschen.
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