The daughter of Theodore and Maria Bondi, a wealthy Jewish couple, she turned to dance under the pseudonym Gertrud Bodenwieser under which she was celebrated in Vienna as a sensation.

Among her students who went on to pursue their own careers were names such as Vilma Degischer, Trudl Dubsky, Shona Dunlop MacTavish, Gisa Geert, Hilde Holger, Susanne Hock, Gertrud Kraus, Maria Palmer, Peggy van Praagh, and Cilli Wang.

Her 1944 dance, "The Masks of Lucifer", showed intrigue, terror and hatred as personifications of political totalitarianism and became famous as the embodiment of an ominous time.

[5] Bodenwieser's teaching produced some of the most important dancers, choreographers, and artists in Australia, including Anita Ardell, Keith Bain, Margaret Chapple, Coralie Hinkley, Ena Noël, Ann Butt, Hanny Exiner, Phillipa Cullen and Eileen Kramer.

Emmy Towsey and Marie Cuckson collated the "Bodenwiser Archives" from salvaged and catalogued materials, with the intention to donate them to the National Library of Australia.