Dance Techniques 2010

Dance Techniques and Lives
157
department was closed a few years ago. It is also possible
that Corrie Hartong taught a lot of Wigman in
Rotterdam after the war, and let’s not forget Hanya Holm
in New York. The way Wigman dealt with the space
also had an impact on the staging styles of opera and
theater directors, like Sellner, Rennert, and Ruth Berghaus.
Elements of Wigman can also be found in ballet.
Wigman is also still present in the reconstructions of
her dances, but I generally find these reconstructions
unacceptable. One only sees what has been copied from
video and you end up with something so wishy–washy.
I can only accept those dances reconstructed by Fabian
Barba. He came to grips with the technique and didn’t
just take the movements from the video; he delved deep
into the Wigman’s ideas.
There has also been no institutionalization of this
method or technique, right? No, and Wigman didn’t
want that either. She always thought that it would be at
the expense of individualism. She preferred that personalities
work in her spirit, but not necessarily in her way.
And if someone asks you to teach a Wigman class,
what would you teach? I would also have to ask myself—after
fifty years—what is memory of Wigman and
what is, in fact, my own experience? The memory and
my experiences overlap, so what is from Wigman and what
is from me? There are many aspects of Wigman’s teaching
that were important for others, but I don’t necessarily
remember those things at all. Memory is selective, and
one doesn’t continue with things one never liked.
Were there any other activities that supplemented
your training, i.e., theory, other physical
practices, or analytical processes? I felt stimulated
by the new music (neue Musik). Music was like a
guide for me, especially Anton Webern’s music, in
how he reduced music to fundamental elements, its essence.
That was our goal: If one was thinking about
something particular, one searched for a movement for
as long as it took, a movement that corresponded
with what one wanted to say. This sometimes took weeks,
even though the dances back then were very short—
two and three minutes. When I did my first five-minute
dance, it was considered much too long. I worked
mainly with musique concrète, as it gave you a lot of
freedom. One could hold a dialogue with the music,
work with it as a partner.
And then Informal Painting emerged, which was
no longer a reproduction of nature but the portrayal
of an internal attitude. This type of painting was
not about feelings, however. On stage, lighting could
create a particular space that was important for
the mood, a particular color represented a particular
expression or idea. Movement, color, and lighting
had to be harmonious.
That applied to your work with Group Motion,
right? Yes, but it was also part of our training and work
in the Wigman Studio.
Did you work with modern music there?
Yes, for example with Bartók, Hindemith, and Ravel.
Ulrich Kessler was our constant accompanist, and he also
played freely. We never worked with classical music.
My first dances with Wigman were to free jazz and Webern.
Is today’s teaching coupled with a particular
artistic practice? When I returned from Japan and
did my first solos, I was immediately labeled as a
Butoh dancer. I was always described as a Butoh dancer
and I could only say that I wasn’t a Butoh dancer! I
am also not an Expressionist dancer. I am just a dancer.
Where I get my inspiration is completely irrelevant,
but even the Goethe Institute pigeonholed me the same
way. Being pegged is always double–edged. The Wigman
Technique was developed further in America, for example,
it is not something that is rigid or systematized—
and it has influenced my pedagogical and artistic work.
How did Wigman’s relevance change after the
Second World War? I never experienced Wigman
before the Second World War. There was a resurgence
of ballet after the war, particularly in Berlin under
Adenauer’s government. Expressionist dance was forgotten
overnight. That was Dore Hoyer’s dilemma, and
also Manja Chmièl’s, who had the same artistic potency
as Hoyer. Manja was caught between two generations
and never really had her moment in time.
And how relevant is this technique today?
One can still use some aspects of the technique today.
Perfection and speed has made a great deal of what
happens in dance very physical. Moving away from this,
and thinking about movement and the content of movement,
would be a good way of redressing the imbalance.
It is not a matter of putting more feeling into movement,
but adopting the movement as one’s own, so that
one brings oneself as a person into the movement. This
way of working should be given more weight in my view,
so that the audience once again enjoys seeing the person as
well as the dancer on the stage.
What are your hopes for the future?
That the qualities we possess are recognized, and that
we are not labeled as antique…that dancers and
others become aware of these qualities once again, and
integrate them into dance.