Gertrud Bodenwieser, continued
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Dancer Hilary Napier, photograph by Margaret Michaelis; Sydney, Australia, nd. |
Bodenwieser carved out a distinctive style of modern dance. Her work was characterized by fluidity, the use of sculptural forms, tableaux vivants, and visionary content. Key components of her style were spannung (tension) and entspannung (relaxation). As she describes it:
The new dance . . . wishes to embrace all the human feelings, not only harmony, lightness and charm, but also passionate desire, immense fervor, lust, domination, fear and frustration, dissonance and uproar. The new dance does not content itself with being enchanting and entertaining only; it wishes to be stirring, exciting, and thought-provoking. (13)
Following the success of her solo career, Bodenwieser formed her own company, the Tanzgruppe Bodenwieser, in 1923. This company toured successfully throughout Europe and to North America and Japan in the period between the two world wars. As an educator, Bodenwieser was professor of choreography from 1926-38 at the Vienna State Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she was responsible for developing an innovative training and education in modern dance which included gymnastics, improvisation, art history, dance history, and design. In the context of Ausdruckstanz, Horst Koegler wrote that Bodenwieser was "the most important and creative personality produced by Vienna in this field." (14)
Her most significant works were generally considered to be her dance dramas, large group ensemble works with clearly defined themes and narrative structures. In 1936 a review appeared in Der Wiener Tag of Bodenwieser’s Festival Recital. The reviewer describes the impact of the dance drama Die Mesken Luzifer (The Mask of Lucifer):
Die Mesken Luzifer portrays on the stage what Kant calls the radical-evil, in a threefold appearance, as Intrigue, Terror, and Hate. One feels actually transported into our own times. Lies, slander, oppression, terror, hate, and viciousness explode from this group of young dancers. Magnificent as the movement is, suddenly reinforced by the sharp cries of their voices, as opposing groups hurl at each other their lashing slogans: "Rasse gegen Rasse!" [race against race], "Masse gegen Masse!" [mass against mass], "Klasse gegen Klasse!" [class against class]. Magnificent too, when one group of human beings again and again subjugates the other, ad infinitum, until at the end, Lucifer puts his foot on the necks of all. (15)
This work, performed in 1936, must be viewed as a critique intended to jolt audiences into consideration of the impending convulsions of Nazism and totalitarianism. The perspicaciousness of Bodenwieser’s artistic vision was a quality frequently commented upon by her dancers.
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