Dance Techniques 2010

150
Interview with Anna Markard and Reinhild Hoffmann
alongside ballet training. Folkwang was also an educational
center for all other art forms, and it had always been
my wish to go Essen and attend the Folkwang School.
Your father was your teacher in Essen, Anna;
you no longer had Sigurd Leeder, as he stayed in
London.
AM Yes, and Hans Züllig. It was a real thrill for my
father to have acquired his former pupil, Hans Züllig—
who had since become a great soloist—as a teacher
at the school. I found it very important to learn the discipline
that ballet requires. One has to understand the
situation in Essen–Werden in 1949: There was no link to
a major city, Essen was totally destroyed and very
unattractive, as was all of Germany a few years after
the end of the war. Jooss wanted ballet teachers for the
Folkwang School, as he believed that dance training
could not focus on modern dance alone. He wanted the
program to include difference dance techniques, and
each technique should be on an equal footing with the
other. He managed to win Laura Maris from England
for the ballet component of the program. We owe
her a great deal indeed. It was the start. I belong to this
experimental generation, and I was, at the same time,
a pupil at the Folkwang School.
Which other teachers were important for you?
AM We had a Frau Hartung for character dance. Folk
dance didn’t come until a few years later.
RH You were my teacher for modern dance technique
the first two years, Anna, then came Trude Pohl for
composition, Gisela Reber for folklore and Diana Baddeley
for script (Kinetography). Space awareness and movement
quality were trained in the modern dance classes;
we learned how to analyze movement in the Kinetography
classes. We learned musicality and about specific,
ethnic characterization in folk dance classes; in composition
class we learned to discover our own movement.
Hans Züllig was my teacher for modern technique in years
three and four, and Kurt Jooss for eukinetics and
choreutics. Kurt Jooss gave movement combinations for
us to explore in terms of space, time, effort, and movement
approach. This is how we learned how to describe
movement.
My ballet teacher, Irén Bartos, was very important
for me. I was not the ideal ballet dancer as I didn’t have
the feet for it, but she observed my modern work,
appreciated it, and tried to get the best out of me.
Anna, you trained at the Folkwang School and
then continued your studies abroad.
AM I was still far from being a dancer. I was fortunate
to get to know Nora Kiss at a summer course in Switzerland.
Nora was a famous teacher in Paris at the time, and
for me there was no question about it—I had to go there.
I went to Paris to Madame Nora, took classes
with her, and observed what she was doing. After two
years, Madame Nora put an additional beginner’s
course on the class roster that I was allowed to teach.
She tested me every evening: How would one correct
that, and that, or what does one need to master a
particular technical challenge? I was introduced to
the essence of ballet in the most wonderful way and
really educated—and I learned how to work hard.
I returned to the Folkwang School later and became an
assistant.
RH I would also like to mention that meeting Rosalia
Chladek was very important for me during my time at
the Folkwang School.
AM Chladek also taught at the Folkwang School, on a
course–by–course basis.
RH That is interesting as Chladek’s system is based on
movement analysis; for example, it questions how the
body functions in an off–center or tense state. Or, how
does movement progression change when different
approaches to the movement are taken? Kurt Jooss was
open to other techniques. He often invited guest teachers
and choreographers to the Folkwang Dance Studio,
for example Vera Volkova for ballet. She mostly came to
conduct examinations and was a legend in the school—
she exuded a great authority and a great aura.
AM Jooss asked Vera Volkova if she would be willing
to run the school with him. Both of them spoke
often about the link between ballet and modern. For
Volkova, modern dance was a wonderful contrast,
and thus complementary—which reassured those of us
who were teaching. Vera Volkova worked at the school
for ten years, conducting examinations and teaching
advanced students for a couple of days each year.
How did the Jooss–Leeder Technique influence
your work? It’s clear that you were very much
influenced by other techniques and teachers.
AM I loved the work at the Folkwang School. I
really wanted to work more on this material and in this
spirit—I did not go my own way. I was passionate
about teaching, and I discovered this passion early on,
but over the past thirty years I have been coaching
rather than teaching.
RH I was deeply influenced by composition
class where I was required to look for my own forms
of expression from the first class onward.
Where, and how, did what you learned have an
influence?
RH I learned that the interplay between space, time,
and effort (choreutics and eukinetics) offers limitless
possibilities for expression. This knowledge helped me
in particular as a choreographer, as well as in my
work directing opera and music when studying roles
with the performers.