German Expressionism, the Legacy of the Horror Dance the Nazi’s Killed
Horror is an art form that is as old as humanity. We have folktales from ancient societies that tell us of the pious and the evils that come to those who defied the gods. We have stories of seventeenth-century werewolves and serial killer noblewomen, trapped in high towers. Not all of what modern audiences think of as horror looks like the tales of old but they all serve a similar purpose; to show us what a people or community are afraid of. It is an art felt deep in the audience’s bones. We watch or read horror because it elicits a strong emotional and, at times, physical response. The visceral feelings horror stories and films have created throughout history fit hand and hand with the visceral sensations that dance gives to the dancer and the audience. Dance is an exhausting practice which draws in the viewer with its endurance and emotional complexity, both of which are key elements to the horror genre.
Horror, in its more modern, “western” form, was originated in Print with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This novel dealt with man’s hubris, the grotesque nature of the body and the death of God in ways that would not be seen again for decades. These themes, and themes just as existential, have come up again and again in dance during the twentieth century. Difficult themes are seen in everything from Ballets such as Swan Lake (1875), where the narrative focuses on love and personhood to Martha Graham’s Lamentation (1930), which looks at internalized grief. Dance has always been created to deal with the intricacies of human life. As dancers we use our bodies to explore the mundane, the ethereal and the grotesque. These are seen in striking detail in two influential, non- American dance movements; these movements are German Expressionism and Japanese Butoh. Here we will begin to look into the former and it’s relation to wartime, the Other and economic despair.
Expressionist and Modern dance sprang up around 1900. Each movement was developed in Europe and America respectively as a protest against the rigidity of ballet and the larger artistic and political atmosphere of the time. In Germany, where the Expressionist movement began, the artists were inspired by the extreme poverty in the country and the rise of Nazi rhetoric.
Expressionist dancers felt that ballet was built on superficiality and sought a truer, more natural form of dance. Expressionist dance was only one aspect of a larger artistic movement that included filmmakers and painters as well as dancers. German Expressionism was focused highly on the artist’s inner feelings and ideas about their surroundings instead of recreating a reality. Expressionist paintings were characterised by bright colors and gestural brushstrokes while the films from this period were brooding and dark. Many of its most famous works came about after the Great War and during Germany’s economic crisis prior to World War two. The most famous works from this period were the films Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and Metropolis (1927). All three of these films are still heralded as genre makers within the horror community. Nosferatu is a vampire tale while inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula while Dr. Caligari deals with mental illness, murder and the very concept of reality versus perception.
The movement would thrive through the 20’s until the 1930’s . Expressionist dance began to crumble when “The designation ‘expressionist dance’ was forbidden under the National Socialist regime, and the non-classical direction of dance was designated ‘German dance” (Müller.) The pressures from the Nazi government drove many Expressionist artists into exile, while many more were persecuted. While the Modern dance movement in America continued to grow and even gained members from the Expressionists the Expressionist movement was all but destroyed in Central Europe.
The expressionist dance of Germany was a highly influential branch of the overall movement and it gave the dance world the likes of Rudolf Von Laban, who would go on to create Laban notation and choreographer Hanya Holm who is known as one of the “Big Four” founders of American Modern Dance. The largest difference between the German Expressionist movement and the American Modern dance movement was that the Expressionists viewed their work as a movement and did not seek to create specific techniques based on that work. Instead they saw dance as a metaphysical experience above all else. For Dance Germany, writer Hedwig Müller says, “An abundance of dancers belonged to the dance culture of the Twenties, such as the socially critical Valeska Gert or the communist Jean Weidt. All had in common. the striving to bring to expression an individual world vision, through a dance touching on natural body movement” (Müller).
Mary wigman (1886- 1973) was one of the most influential German Expressionist choreographers of the pre-World War two era. Her influence can still be seen in pieces such as Pina Bausch’s recreation of The Rite of Spring (1975). She was a student of Rudolf Laban and Emile Jaques- Dalcroze before composing her own work. The Encyclopedia Britannica says of Wigman;
Her impact on dance throughout central Europe changed the course of dance history. Her pupils, numbering thousands, included Harald Kreutzberg, Yvonne Georgi, Margarethe Wallmann, and Hanya Holm, the latter two exerting major influences on the development of American modern dance.
Wigman’s most famous dance for modern audiences is Hexentanz, or Witch Dance. This piece was composed in 1914 but the only surviving footage of it comes from 1930. The piece features Wigman in a mask and cloak which serve to make create an inhuman, eerily ethereal body. She sits on the floor for the entirety of the work. Her energy flows out through her hands, upper torso, head and feet. Her body twitches and she creates statuesque poses that are reminiscent of the hag of witch lore. In their linked description to this film, MOMA states,
This short solo is a masterpiece of strangeness. Wigman aimed for state of ritualised trance as she danced, summoning up the dangerous spirit of her character, yet the detail and control of her movement is remarkable. Wigman’s witch is cousin to the troubled terrifying spirit of Max Schreck’s Nosferatu; hunching over herself as if drawing dark spells from her own body, then launching into a rocking and lurching trajectory towards her prey (MOMA).
Wigman’s work was created in a social and political time of violence, fear and desperation. Hexentanz was created amidst Germany’s horrendous economic crisis and at the beginning of the desemination of Nazi rhetoric. The movement of Hexentanz displays a body at war within itself and mirrors the internal conflict of the maker’s country. Her energy punches out through her limbs, only to be pulled back in at the last second. Her dehumanized features create a characticature of pain and ecstasy. To the European viewer of the early Twentieth century this must have been an unnerving comparison to Ballet. For the modern viewer it brings about a tension between the uncanny valley and a beautiful spectacle.
Unfortunately Wigman herself gave into the darkness of the German political world of the time and became complicit with the Nazi regime. Judith Wellman, in her article for the Guardian on Wigman says;
While her early choreography was not to official taste, she was sufficiently in step with the early Volk-inspired philosophy of the Reich to receive a commission to choreograph a mass Olympic Youth dance for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. And while she was privately sympathetic to Jewish students in her Dresden school, she didn’t rebel against orders to remove Jewish dancers from her company (Wellman).
The horror of her dance was sadly reflected with the horrors that would be inflicted in the name of the German people.
Valeska Gert (1892–1978) was another German expressionist dancer who is known as a pioneer of performance art. Her work covered more grounded but just as disturbing and visceral topics from sexuality and masturbation to death. Her audiences were shocked yet enthralled by her work and to modern eyes her work is reminiscent of our dark humor and she has even been called the grandmother of the punk movement.
Gert’s most recognizably provocative work was the portrale of sex worker Canaille. This work premiered during the period where the German State’s regulation of sex work was becoming more increased and the Sittenpolizei or the moral police cracked down on any supposed sex workers. In her academic work on Gert, Alexandra Kolb says of this piece;
Gert’s unvarnished and ruthless depiction of the prostitute renounced any idealization. Everyday life — and misery — were reinstated over and above the aestheticized life previously represented in much dance, in particular classical ballet with its fairy-tale plots and noble, dignified representation of humanity (Kolb).
A piece that is easily viewable to modern audiences is Tanzeriche Pantominen (1925). This work is a short film performed by Gert and filmed by german cinematographer Suse Byk. The film is a short series of movement vignettes where Gert[‘s body and face ranges from drawn out pain to frantic ecstasy. With each costume change Gert rapidly transforms into a new character with new movement signatures. The short film is a surreal watch that leaves the viewer smiling and bewildered.
German expressionist dancers did not work to make “horror dance” as the horror genre was still new and niche. Instead they dealt with complicated problems of metaphysics, death, sexuality and the economic and social depression and the rise of Nazism within their country. All of these topics are staples of the modern horror genre. Their creations were provocative and unnerving for their contemporary audiences and still continue to disturb modern viewers. Horror in art can range from the subtle and understated to brutal and overwhelming. German expressionist dance is a wonderful example of this.
The expressionist movement was a large catalyst in the international dance movement of the early twentieth century and inspired artists in many styles throughout the subsequent decades. It’s legacy is lasting even if the movement itself did not live far past the Nazi regime. It has continued to create discomfort, horror and inspiration until today.
Sources
Müller, Hedwig. “Expressionist Dance.” Dance Germany. Tanzland Nordrhein-Westfalen, Edited
by MASSKS NRW. Referat Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, 1999.
Mackrell, Judith. Mary Wigman. A dance pioneer with an awkward past. May, 2013.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/may/22/mary-wigman-german-modern-dance-pioneer
MOMA. Inventing Abstraction 1910–1925. Mary Wigman, Hexentanz “Witch Dance” (1926.)
https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/inventingabstraction/?work=238
The Encyclopedia Britannica. Sept. 14th, 2019.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wigman
Dangerous Minds. June, 18th, 2019. The Grotesque and the Beautiful: Meet Veleska Gert, the
Women Who Pioneered Performance Art.
Numeridanse. Tanzeriche Pantominen.
https://www.numeridanse.tv/en/dance-videotheque/tanzerische-pantominen
Kolb, Alexandra (2007) ‘There was never anythin’ like this!!!’ Valeska Gert’s performances in
the context of Weimar culture. The European Legacy, 12 (3). pp. 293–309. ISSN
1084–8770