Sample: Dance the Bauhaus

EditEd for thE Bauhaus dEssau foundation
By torstEn BlumE
DANCE THE
BAUHAUS
E. A. SEEMANN

This publication is released for the exhibition “Dance the Bauhaus.
The Stage as Spatial Apparatus” in the Bayer Erholungshaus, Leverkusen
(20 September 2015 – 3 January 2016). The exhibition is a production of
the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in cooperation with Bayer Cultural Affairs
and was curated by Torsten Blume and Andrea Peters.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are
available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© Bauhaus Dessau Foundation for works by Walter Köppe
© Dr. Stefan Consemüller for works by Erich Consemüller
© Estate of T. Lux Feininger for works by T. Lux Feininger
© Hattula Moholy-Nagy for works by László Moholy-Nagy
© Kaj Delugan for works by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack
© Kunstsammlungen Gera for works by Kurt Schmidt
© Michael Schreyer for works by Lothar Schreyer
© Phyllis Umbehr/Galerie Kicken Berlin for works by Otto Umbehr
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015, for works by Walter Gropius, Lucia Moholy,
Wassily Kandinsky, Joost Schmidt, Andor Weininger
© Xanti Schawinsky Estate, Zurich, for works by Xanti Schawinsky
ISBN 978-3-86502-361-2
© 2015 Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Torsten Blume and E. A. Seemann
Publishing House, in the Seemann Henschel GmbH & Co. KG, Leipzig
www.seemann-verlag.de
The use of texts, photographs or illustrations also in part, without the
agreement of the copyright holder is prohibited as a breach of copyright
and is liable to prosecution. This also applies to any duplication,
translation, micro-filming and processing using electronic systems.
Front cover image: Xanti Schawinsky, “I furfanti” (figurine design
for “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, robber ballet by William Shakespeare,
1925, tempera, pencil and ink on paper, 33.3 x 45 cm)
Jacket design, layout and typesetting: Nicole Schwarz, Berlin
Project management: Iris Klein
Assistance: Hannah Crass
Translation: Abigail Prohaska, Berlin
Reproductions: Medien Profis GmbH, Leipzig
Print and binding: Horst Schreckhase, Spangenberg
Printed in Germany
The author has made every effort to find all image rights and their owners.
If any were overlooked, we kindly request that you contact the author.

01
thE Bauhaus dancEd
PAGE 8
02
art figurEs
PAGE 20
03
Bauhaus dancEs
PAGE 30
04
stagE machinEs
PAGE 40
05
spatial apparatusEs
PAGE 48
06
spatial collEctivEs
PAGE 54
07
play Bauhaus
PAGE 62
notEs
litEraturE
BiographiEs
thE author
photo crEdits
PAGE 66
PAGE 68
PAGE 70
PAGE 76
PAGE 76

Wolfgang rössger, 1927
4 ⁄

georg hartmann, Karla grosch
and two students in front of the
Bauhaus building in dessau, 1929
⁄ “Instead of imposing sanctions
on themselves, people of today are
opening up. Everyone is striving
towards light and air, to liberating
space.”⁄
lászló moholy-nagy, 1929 1 5 ⁄

Bauhaus people on the banks
of the Elbe in dessau, ca. 1927
6 ⁄

05
spatial apparatusEs
Besides the concepts related in a
narrower sense to the immediate
happenings on stage, several utopian
ideas were developed at the Bauhaus,
which – based on the new stagespace
models of the modern theatre
movement – imagined theatre as
a complex amalgam of mechanical
devices and media, to a certain degree
as “theatre machine”. Large-scale
examples include the designs by Walter
Gropius for Erwin Piscator’s “Total
Theatre”, those by Farkas Molnár for
the “U-Theatre”, and by Andor
Weininger for the “Spherical Theatre”.
László Moholy-Nagy had written
already in 1925: “It is time to produce
a kind of stage activity which will
no longer permit the masses to be
silent spectators, which will not only
excite them inwardly but will let them
take hold and participate—actually
allow them to fuse with the action on
the stage at the peak of cathartic
ecstasy. [...] In today’s theatre, stage
and spectator are too much separated,
too obviously divided into active
and passive, to be able to produce
creative relationships and reciprocal
tensions. [...] The next form of the
advancing theatre in cooperation with
future authors — will probably
answer the above demands with suspended
bridges and drawbridges
running horizontally, diagonally, and
vertically within the space of the
theatre; with platform stages built far
into the auditorium; and so on.
Apart from rotating sections, the stage
will have movable space constructions
and disc-like areas, in order to
bring certain action moments on
the stage into prominence, as in film
‘close-ups.’ [...] The possibilities
for a variation of levels of movable
planes on the stage of the future
would contribute to a genuine organisation
of space.” 48
Walter Gropius developed his
concept of a “Total Theatre” for
Erwin Piscator – who had opened
his “Piscator-Bühne-Theater
am Nollendorfplatz” in Berlin in
1927 – out of a combination of film
projection and drama. It aimed
at nothing less than out-performing
cinema and theatre. “Today’s circus,
Walter gropius, “total theatre.
ground plan with peripheral
stage area”, 1927, black
and coloured ink, photo collage
over blue print, 80 x 100 cm
48 ⁄ spatial apparatusEs

operetta, vaudeville, the clowns in
America and elsewhere (Chaplin,
Fratellini) have accomplished great
things, both in this respect and
in eliminating the subjective -even if
the process has been naive and
often more superficial than incisive.
Yet it would be just as superficial
if we were to dismiss great performances
and shows in this genre
with the word ‘kitsch’” 49 , to quote
Moholy-Nagy’s supportive words
on the Gropius project. With his
“Total Theatre” Gropius had reshaped
the vision of a multi-functional
and multi-perspective theatre building
in the spectator is activated as
“Massenmensch (mass-man)” and
given the collective sensation of
being part of a gigantic, dynamic and
all-embracing scenario.
The theatre building was conceived
as an architectural machine
designed to change stage forms
even during the performance, this
“animation of the entire auditorium” 50
making the spectators feel they
are part of the happenings themselves.
The conventional borderline between
stage and auditorium – if
not obliterated – would be blurred as
much as possible. Andor Weininger’s
“Spherical Theatre”, Xanti Schawinsky’s
“Constructive Spatial Theatre” and
Farkas Molnár’s “U-Theatre” in
principle followed Walter Gropius’s
“Total Theatre” ideas and are likewise
examples of scenically dynamised
stage architecture. As spatial apparatuses,
they aimed to facilitate
new, complex, poly-sensuous and,
last but not least, collective experiences,
moreover in multi-perspective
stage landscapes without fixed spectator
positions. Andor Weininger
saw in them an instrumentarium “for
educating people in new modes of
perception through the design of new
movement rhythms”. 51
50 ⁄ spatial apparatusEs

farkas molnár, the
“u-theatre” in operation, 1924
⁄ The “U-Theatre” should be
equipped with four stages,
which can be acted on singly or
together, for drama, dance
and music. It would be particularly
suitable “for acrobatic
performances in the air”.
The planned equipment included:
“mechanical music apparatus,
combinations of innovative sound
instruments, radio and lighting
effects. [...] Suspended bridges,
drawbridges between stages and
theatre circles and galleries.
Other mechanical aids for intensifying
the effect, water apparatuses,
fragrance dispensers.”⁄
farkas molnár, 1924 52
andor Weininger, “Kugeltheater.
schnitt (spherical
theatre. section)”, 1927,
pencil and crayon on paper,
12.7 x 19.4 cm
⁄ “The spectators are situated
on the inner edge of the sphere
in a new spatial relationship,
hence they are situated with an
overview of everything and
because of the centripetal force
in a new, psychological, optical,
acoustic relationship; they
are confronted with possibilities
for concentric, eccentric,
randomly directed and mechanical
procedures on the
space-stage.”⁄
andor Weininger, 1927 53
51 ⁄ spatial apparatusEs

Xanti schawinsky,
“design for a constructive
spatial theatre”, 1926,
tempera, ink and pencil on
cardboard, 54 x 48.9 cm
lászló moholy-nagy,
“Kinetic-constructive system.
structure with movement
tracks for play and conveyance”,
constructed in its entirety by
the graduate engineer stefan
sebök, 1928, after the first
version of 1922, drawing and
photo collage over blueprint,
ink, watercolour on cardboard,
76 × 54.5 cm
⁄ “The building has an outer
track with spiral gradient
for transporting the public, thus
has railings. Instead of steps a
moving ramp [...] the horizontal
ring platform spins everything
downwards in connection
with the elevator and through
the rotation of the whole construction.
[...] The first plans for
the dynamic-constructive power
system can only be based on
experimental and demonstrating
apparatuses for testing
the interconnections of human
being, material, energy, space.”⁄
lászló moholy-nagy, 1929 54
53 ⁄ spatial apparatusEs

Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
pp. 38 (photo: T. Lux Feininger),
39 r. (photo: Robert Binnemann),
55
Private collection, Berlin
pp. 11, 19 (photo: T. Lux Feininger),
36 b. (photo: T. Lux Feininger),
37 (photo: T. Lux Feininger),
39 l. (photo: Robert Binnemann)
Private collection, Vienna
pp. 43 (photo: A. & E. Frankl),
46 (photo: Atelier Eckner, Weimar)
thE author
torstEn BlumE
is research and artistic associate of the Bauhaus
Dessau Foundation and also responsible for
experimental projects on the historic Bauhaus
stage. Since 2011 he has been developing the
project “play bauhaus” in a series of dance
pieces, installations and workshops in Dessau,
Prague, London, Taipei, Seoul and Tokyo. The
overall theme is to imagine the stage as a practice
medium for working on performance concepts,
to re-investigate it, and to present the Bauhaus
stage in impromptu and playful research as a
specific perspective on experimentation. Furthermore,
he has curated various Bauhaus exhibitions,
most recently, with Christian Hiller, “Man Space
Machine. Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus”
(Dessau, Oslo, Seoul; 2013–2015).
Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
pp. 4, 5 (photo: T. Lux Feininger),
6 (photo: Irene Bayer),
7 (photo: Lucia Moholy),
14 (photo: Erich Consemüller),
21, 22, 23 l., r. (photo from: Oskar Schlemmer,
László Moholy-Nagy, Farkas Molnár:
Die Bühne im Bauhaus. Bauhausbücher vol. 4,
Munich 1925, pp. 30, 31),
25 (photo: Photo Ernst Schneider, Berlin),
27 b., 28 (photo: Erich Consemüller),
29 b., 31 (photo aus: Oskar Schlemmer,
László Moholy-Nagy, Farkas Molnár:
Die Bühne im Bauhaus. Bauhausbücher vol. 4,
Munich 1925, p. 13),
32 (photo: Erich Consemüller),
35 b. l., b. r., t. r. (photo: Erich Consemüller),
35 t. l. (photo: T. Lux Feininger),
36 t. (photo: Ruth Hollós),
42 (photo: ContinentalPhoto, Berlin),
47 t., b., 50 (photo from: Oskar Schlemmer,
László Moholy-Nagy, Farkas Molnár:
Die Bühne im Bauhaus. Bauhausbücher vol. 4,
Munich 1925, p. 62),
56, 57 (photo: Louis Held),
58 (photo: Walter Funkat),
59 b. (photo: Otto Umbehr),
63 (photo: Sebastian Gündel),
64 (photo: Jienne Liu),
65 (photo: Sebastian Gündel)
Theatre Collection of the University of Cologne
pp. 26, 44 t., b. l., b. r., 45, 49, 51
Xanti Schawinsky Estate, Zurich
ill. on cover, pp. 27 t.,
29 t. (photo: Photo Strauch, Halle),
41, 52, 53, 59 t. (photo: T. Lux Feininger), 60, 61
76 ⁄ thE author / photo crEdits