Introduction

  Origins

  Dance as Art

  "Epidemie
  des Tanzes"

  Dance
  and Politics

MODERN DANCE IN BERLIN

Origins

The first pathway takes you to the origin of German modern dance. The development of modern dance in Germany was rooted in the larger "Körperkultur" (physical culture) movement which was part of the utopian, anarchic socialism practiced by the bohemian subcultures around the turn of the century in Germany. It was in Monte Verita, Ascona, the artist’s colony in Swiss Alps at the time, where the anarchist social movement took place, experimenting such practices as vegetarianism, nudism, communitarian ideals and outdoor movement. Rudolf von Laban who first developed his system of movement based on the tensions of the body, space and rhythm, was teaching a summer course in Ascona in the summer of 1913. Mary Wigman, who later became one of the leading modern dancers in Germany, had finished her first training of Eurhythmics at Dalcroze school when her artist friend Emil Nolde referred to her about Laban. What was meant to be a summer course turned into life-turning event until Wigman’s debut in 1914.

Click to view the following:

• Sketches, "ca. 1924, by Rudolf Laban attempting to describe human movement as a dynamic geometic form. From Ullmann (1984). 34."
  
  
• Lebensreform (life reform movement): the origin, the people, the practices
  
  
• pictures of Ascona life (Spec.coll)
  
  
• Women in Ascona/female artists in Ascona
  
  
• Wigman’s memory: "Ascona in 1914. A colony of vegetarians who had settled around Monte Verita was in full bloom. In each building reigned a different Weiltanschauung. And so-called social gatherings, discussions were very heated…Three women were exempted forever from this illustrious circle: Else Lasker-Schueler, the poet; Marianne Werefkin, the painter; and Mary Wigman, the dancer. We were looked upon as the "witches of Endor", 41.
  
  
• Dance in Ascona: The general cultural revolution around the turn of the century had not only turned the natural and moderate lifestyle into a type of religion bringing the physical education into a new bloom but also emphasized the return to the original rhythmic movement as the basic reform of dance. The American dancer Isadora Duncan was the first, who practiced the natural expressive dance, inspired by the Greek sculptures and the eurhythmics of classical art. Monte Verita, as the mountain of truth for a new lifestyle, naturally attracted the pioneers of new dance. In 1909, Emile Jaques Dalcroze stayed for 3 months, and also in 1913 Duncan stayed, both not for instructions or training but for personal reasons. Rudolf Laban however established in 1913 a summer school of his school of expressive dance in Munich with the goal of finding new forms of a simple life and a life-empowering regeneration of art. Among his students were Mary Wigman, who had already earned a teaching certificate in Dalcroze school and quickly became the best student and creative assistant of Laban, building her non-exemplary career as the expressive modern dancer.
  
  
• The dances choreographed under Laban in Ascona: pictures of Laban students training; Wigman’s memory about it.