2018年7月3日星期二

Expressionist dance

Expressionist dance (German “Ausdruckstanz” or “Neuer Tanz”, Swedish “Fridans”) is a term for a movement that arose in 1900 as a protest against the artistic stagnation of classical ballet and towards maturity in the future of art in general. Traditional ballet was perceived as the austere, mechanical and tightly held in fixed and conventional forms.

This new dance was freer, natural and less rule-governed. It was strongly influenced by the passage of the expressionistic visual arts. Expressionist dance flourished until World War II, when it disappeared almost completely in Central Europe.

Typical for expressionist dance was the many solo dance evenings held. These were influenced by the individual’s claims to create and present their own choreographic works. Choreographers and dancers were often one and the same person.

The terminology is diverse and the concept of “expressionist dance” came in and around the mid-1900s, and went into the broader concept of modern dance by the end of the 1900s, it came to largely be reunited and fuse with traditional ballet.

Other names for it that have fallen out of use include Moderner Tanz, Absoluter Tanz, Freier Tanz, Tanzkunst and Bewegungskunst. German Expressionist dance is related to Tanztheater.

In 2014, the Central European Peace Movement was taken on UNESCO's list of intellectual heritage under the Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Heritage (equivalent to World Heritage Site). [ 1 ] Foregrounds such as Rosalia Chladek, Rudolf von Laban, Mary Wigman, Gret Palucca, Maja Lex and Kurt Jooss were emphasized to, inspired by the early reform movement and expressionist art, have participated in a groundbreaking and innovative, artistic, choreographic and educational work of reconciling dance, movement, rhythmic gymnastics, body culture and performing arts to a valuable living cultural heritage.

History
Expressionist dance was marked by the passage of modernism, vitalism, expressionism, avant-garde and a general protest against artistic stagnation and the old society. Ballet was perceived to have been superficial entertainment. The new dance would be art, both individual and artistic creation. The dance was described as the art of movement.

It was a revolution. It would be more expressive, and show more spirit and emotion and less virtuosity. The dance would be improvisational, uninhibited and provocative. Future spiritual and bodily reform movements expressed themselves in a new “natural” naked dance. The women took centre stage. A key protagonist was Isadora Duncan, who around 1900 had taken from classical dance technique and costume. She had even taken off dancing shoes – “you do not play the piano with gloves on”. She wanted to unite the body, mind and spirit in her art, and searched with Olga Desmond for inspiration in ancient Greek and Egyptian art, during the time of Orientalism.

The revolutionary movements in Germany and the USA were most obvious, two countries that had no older rooted ballet tradition. The fore runners in Europe were, for example, Clotilde von Derp, Hertha Feist, Hilde Holger, Loie Fuller, Jo Mihaly and especially Mary Wigman.

Beginnings
In the beginning, ways were sought to find again the natural movement of the body out of the frozen codified forms. A variety of these endeavors were taught at the end of the 19th century under the label Delsarte system.

The first famous representative was Isadora Duncan. She wanted to combine body, soul and spirit in her art and got her inspiration from the illustrations on Greek vases and what she found in the works of Greek dramatists and philosophers in descriptions of ancient Greek dance. She was also the first dancer to write about her art and develop a dance theory.

In Germany, Clotilde von Derp was the first representative of "modern dance" in Munich from 1910 onwards. Emil Jaques-Dalcroze founded his school for rhythmic gymnastics in Hellerau near Dresden. And many other free gymnastics styles and schools originated.

A center for this back-to-nature movement was the artists' colony of Monte Verità in the municipality of Ascona in Switzerland. There Rudolf von Laban taught and worked. He made an attempt to consolidate the theory of motion of the expressive dance theoretically and to develop a dance script for it. Since he later lived and worked in England, his influence in creative dance is strongest there, especially in the pedagogical field of working with children.

With the social upheaval of the First World War, an outburst of predefined, outmoded forms, no longer corresponding to the new way of life, took place in all the arts. The intense, dramatic expression of personal experience, exploding in colors, sounds, words and movements, became the focal point and became Expressionism. Bizarre, oblique, the destructive form belonged to it, also the use of masks. And as accompaniment to the expressive dance drums, xylophones and all kinds of rhythm instruments were used in addition to known music. There were even dances without music. Individual design, improvisation, individual dance were in the foreground.

Thus the expressive dance became known above all through individual personalities; Most sustained by Mary Wigman, her students Harald Kreutzberg and Gret Palucca and Dore Hoyer.

The women's movement also played a role in this development.

Weimar Republic
Dresden became a "mecca" of this new dance art in the 1920s and 30s. Mary Wigman founded her dance school in 1920, Gret Palucca in 1924. Dancers from all over the world came to study with them. The Japanese Ōno Kazuo saw Wigman, Kreutzberg and Hoyer dance and was inspired by (and by other influences) to develop the Butoh. Wigman's assistant Hanya Holm went to America in 1931 to give her solo recitals and to found a Wigman school there. The American Martha Graham became the most important dancer, teacher and choreographer of the new art form under the name Modern Dance in the USA. She also founded a school and gave it to theModern dance is a vocabulary comparable to the classical ballet codex. Martha Graham came to Germany in 1957 and appeared at the Berlin Academy of the Arts in Berlin (West) as part of the Berliner Festwochen. (There is a picture on which Mary Wigman and Dore Hoyer are on stage with Martha Graham after their performance: the three most important dancers of modern dance.)

Other pioneers of expressive dance in Hamburg were Gertrud and Ursula Falke, the worker dancer Jean Weidt, the mask dancers Lavinia Schulz and Walter Holdt. In Sweden worked Birgit Cullberg, who as the founder of the eponymous ballet companies, is known worldwide, and Birgit Åkesson.

Kurt Jooss, who combined ballet and expressive dance with each other, and Mary Wigman choreographed groundbreaking dance theater; B. Jooss 1932 The green table, a kind of death dance; Wigman 1930 her anti-war tableau Dead Mark.

The Falcon sisters also worked with groups, particularly impressive were their choreographies for Laban's movement choirs. His pupil Lola Rogge continued this work, took over in 1934 in Hamburg the Laban school, which exists there until the 21st century under its name.

National Socialism
The period of National Socialism interrupted, as in many other arts also for the expressive dance, the living development in Germany. Many stopped dancing, took their own lives or left Germany. Some arranged with the regime in different ways. As a "beauty dance" nude dance and eroticism were offered in wide circles until the war years. Mary Wigman was allowed to keep their school and opened in 1936 with a choreography the Olympic Games in Berlin.

Postwar
After the Second World War, the high-time of pure expression dance in Germany was over, partly because of its involvement in National Socialism. There was still the Wigman school. She herself did not dance anymore, but choreographed, for example, 1957 Le sacre du printemps (The Spring Offering) by Stravinsky, Dore Hoyer gave her impressive solo recitals until her death in 1967. Beside her and influenced by her Manja Chmièl impressed with an abstracting body language. She was a student and assistant to Mary Wigman in Berlin. Jean Weidt returned from French exile and created in the early years of the GDR a new form of expressive dance, but because of too obvious proximity to the state was not widely recognized. Jean Weidt was appointed to the Komische Oper Berlin by opera director Walter Felsenstein and helped establish Europe's most modern and successful dance theater under the direction of Tom Schilling from 1966 onwards.

However, the influence of modern dance was so strong that now many choreographers have combined elements of expressive dance and ballet to dance drama, a theatrical dance form that incorporates both. The end of the antagonism between modern dance and classical ballet was the premiere of the Épisodes (1959) choreographed by Balanchine and Martha Graham in the USA. Former Graham students, especially Merce Cunningham gave the ballet new impetus. They developed experimental ballet styles that include the experience of two world wars and increasing environmental degradation by humans.

Today
At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, there are a great many dance groups whose choreographies were influenced by expressive dance. As good as any dance education now includes the subject of modern dance. Young dancers take up the art of solistic expressive dance again. For example, they developed the dances of Dore Hoyer's human passions (Afectos humanos). Many solo dancers today are also choreographers (for example Susanne Linke, Reinhild Hoffmann, Ismael Ivo and Arila Siegert).

The well-known choreographers working in Germany include William Forsythe, Sergei Gleithmann, Daniela Kurz, Raimund Hoghe, Constanza Macras, Felix Ruckert, Arila Siegert and Sasha Waltz.

Schools
The schools for expressionist dance had special philosophies and emphasis on dance, such as naturalness, breathing or tension / relaxation. Often it was associated with the contact with the earth, the "weight" of dance movements and experiments with music. Body and physicist were greatly emphasized. Rudolf von Laban was a prominent theoretical figure that was based on metaphysical ideas. It was during a time in Monte Verità in the municipality of Ascona in Switzerland, which also became a center for the new dance. One of his students was Kurt Jooss.

Mary Wigman was a creator of important trends as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. In his school in Dresden, opened in 1920, he taught the most important dancers in Europe, Gret Palucca, Harald Kreutzberg, Jeanna Falk, Dore Hoyer and Yvonne Georgi. Hanya Holm brought her theories to the United States, while Birgit Åkesson followed her own path with her research on dance.

The Denishawn School in the United States was founded by Ruth Saint Denis and Ted Shawn, with students such as Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. His independent and pioneering dance came to form the backbone of modern dance, the numerous branches of which extended for years. With the forms, mediation of the rhythm and movement of the expressionist dance style, in 2014 it was added to the German list of intangible cultural heritage in the sense of the convention for safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of the UNESCO.

Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theater inspired by expressionism, which covers a wide range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, tiredness, performance or movement. After World War II, butoh emerged in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo.

Schools for expressionist dance had special philosophies and emphases for dance, such as naturalness, breathing, tension / relaxation etc. It was often associated with floor contact, “weight” of dance movements, and experiments with music. Body and physicality were strongly emphasized. Rudolf von Laban was a theoretical prominent figure who was based on metaphysical ideas. He served for a time from Monte Verità, which also became a center for the new dance. One of his students was Kurt Jooss.

Source from Wikipedia

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