Bauhaus Dances of the 1920s

The Bauhaus, an experimental school for the arts and design, was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. The zeitgeist called the Weimar Republic, which lasted from 1919 to 1933, produced such luminaries as Albert Einstein and Max Planck in science; Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich in theater and film; Thomas Mann in literature; Kurt Weill, Alban Berg & Paul Hindemith in music; George Grosz, Kokoschka, Kandinsky, Paul Klee in painting; Fritz Lang and his master films, Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; and the Bauhaus as an institution of design innovation and worldwide repute. Uniting the arts, crafts and technology in a gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), Gropius envisioned an architecture that would fuse the newfound technology of mass production with beauty and functionality. The Nazis forced the closure of the Dessau Bauhaus in 1932, but its influence is felt to this day. 

 

One of the more successful Bauhaus workshops was the Stage, or Theater Workshop, led by Oskar Schlemmer. The Bauhaus Dances were delivered as a series of abstract lecture dances between 1927-29. Schlemmer aimed to create figures that would symbolize the period’s fascination with new technology; each dancer was assigned both a primary color and a tempo to symbolize a psychological temperament. The avant-garde legacy of Schlemmer and his Stage Workshop would eventually influence the performance work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Alwin Nikolais, Robert Wilson, Meredith Monk, the Judson Dance Theater, Laurie Anderson and David Byrne, amongst others.

 

Curious about the roots of abstract performance art, Debra McCall, in the 1980s, set about researching and reconstructing these unique dances that had not been seen for over fifty years. A chance introduction to the last surviving performer of these dances led to her meeting the widow of Walter Gropius and traveling to Germany to “rediscover” the original notes and sketches for the dances, thought to be lost during WWII. Debra will present the narrative of her reconstruction process within the narrative of the Bauhaus, and will screen her film of the Bauhaus Dances reconstruction. Artforum described McCall’s reconstructions as “a tour de force of research and as a demonstration of the continuing relevance of the master innovative artists of Modernism” while the New York Times wrote that Schlemmer’s works were “prophetic,” and the reconstructions “a revelation.” The film of the reconstructions was part of the recent “Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and was also included in the Performa 09 exhibition “100 Years [of Performance Art]” at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, which closed early April.

PRODUCER: Debra McCall

Debra McCall is Associate Director of the Ross Institute, East Hampton and New York City. She has served on the graduate school faculties of Pratt Institute, New York University, and Adelphi University as well as the New York Institute of Movement Studies. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York State Council on the Arts. As the 1988 Advanced Design Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, she researched the mystery rites of the Mediterranean basin to choreograph “Psyche’s Tasks,” based on Apuleius’ Metamorphosis.  Her reconstructions of the 1920’s Bauhaus Dances of Oskar Schlemmer premiered in 1982 at The Kitchen with sponsorship from Goethe Institute and the New York Foundation for the Arts. The reconstructions toured the US, Europe and Japan, including the first international Biennale de la Danse in Lyon, the 1984 exhibition Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915-1933 at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Oskar Schlemmer exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center and the IBM Gallery of Science and Art. Ms. McCall’s reconstructions returned to the Dessau Bauhaus in 1994 and her film of these pieces was selected for the American Dance Festival’s International Film and Video Festival tour. Her writing on the project is included in the Baltimore Museum of Art’s exhibition catalogue, Oskar Schlemmer, as well as the International Encyclopedia of Dance published by Oxford University Press. A certified movement analyst for many years, she created and delivered a series of workshops with James Hillman on the Body of Myth and continues to teach in art therapy programs at Prescott College and Art Therapy Italiana, Italy. Presently, she studies Middle Eastern dance.