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  2. Marking Modern Movement: Dance and Gender in the Visual Imagery of the Weimar Republic

Marking Modern Movement: Dance and Gender in the Visual Imagery of the Weimar Republic

Susan Funkenstein 2020
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Imagine yourself in Weimar Germany: you are visually inundated with depictions of dance.  Perusing a women's magazine, you find photograph after photograph of leggy revue starlets, clad in sequins and feathers, coquettishly smiling at you.  When you attend an art exhibition, you encounter Otto Dix's six-foot-tall triptych Metropolis, featuring Charleston dancers in the latest luxurious fashions, or Emil Nolde's watercolors of Mary Wigman, with their luminous blues and purples evoking her choreographies' mystery and expressivity.  Invited to the Bauhaus, you participate in the Metallic Festival, and witness the school's transformation into a humorous, shiny, technological total work of art; you costume yourself by strapping a metal plate to your head, admire your reflection in the tin balls hanging from the ceiling, and dance the Bauhaus' signature step in which you vigorously hop and stomp late into the night.

 

Yet behind the razzle dazzle of these depictions and experiences was one far more complex involving issues of gender and the body during a tumultuous period in history, Germany's first democracy (1918-1933).  Rather than mere titillation, the images copiously illustrated and analyzed in Marking Modern Movement illuminate how visual artists and dancers befriended one another and collaborated together.  In many ways because of these bonds, artists and dancers forged a new path in which images revealed artists' deep understanding of dance, their dynamic engagement with popular culture, and out of that, a possibility of representing women dancers as cultural authorities to be respected.  Through six case studies, Marking Modern Movement explores how and why these complex dynamics occurred in ways specific to their historical moment.

 

Extensively illustrated and with color plates, Marking Modern Movement is a clearly written book accessible to general readers and undergraduates. Coming at a time of a growing number of major art museums showcasing large-scale exhibitions on images of dance, the audience exists for a substantial general-public interest in this topic.  Conversing across German studies, art history, dance studies, gender studies, and popular culture studies, Marking Modern Movement is intended to engage readers coming from a wide range of perspectives and interests.

 
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Series
  • Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-05461-9 (paper)
  • 978-0-472-07461-7 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12708-5 (ebook)
Subject
  • Dance
  • Theater and Performance
  • German Studies
  • Art
  • Gender Studies
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  • Table of Contents

  • Resources

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Introduction
  • One. Dance Like It’s 1919
  • Two. There’s Something About Mary (Wigman)
  • Three. Kicklines for Feminists
  • Four. The Weimar Vogue for Black Dance
  • Five. It Takes Two to Shimmy
  • Six. Designed to Dance
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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Two black-and-white photos side by side in a magazine article on the Charleston, instructing German readers on how to dance. A dancing couple in a suit and dress display the X-shape of the legs, the couple hold, and the upright carriage of the torso. The images show this from two different angles. Text instructions sit below the images.

“The basic position of the Charleston step" and "The slow Charleston step with bent knee" (Die Grundstellung beim Charlestonschritt" "Der langsame Charlestonschritt mit gebogenem Knie")

From Chapter 4

“The Basic Position of the Charleston Step” and “The Slow Charleston Step with Bent Knee” (Die Grundstellung beim Charlestonschritt” “Der langsame Charlestonschritt mit gebogenem Knie”), in Katharina Rathaus, “The Charleston: Every Age Has the Dance It Deserves” (“Charleston. Jede Zeit hat den Tanz, den sie verdient),” Uhu 3:1 (October 1926): 122. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. bpk Bildagentur / Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / Dietmar Katz / Art Resource, NY

Otto Dix painting portraying himself at the center of the composition, holding a telephone. He looks steely eyed and wears a trim, pale green suit. He stands in the foreground in a jazz dance hall with a female mannequin bust in an ornate costume at his side. Behind him to the left is a dancing couple (who isn’t actually dancing) wearing a suit and sparkly dress, and to the right next to him is a black jazz drummer wearing a suit and actively drumming on a set with a depiction of a Native American person on its front. Behind the drummer, another female mannequin stands with an anxious expression. In the very back of the room are some columns and another figure entering.

To Beauty (An die Schönheit)

From Chapter 5

Otto Dix, To Beauty (An die Schönheit), 1922. Oil on canvas. 140 × 122 cm. Von-der-Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Inside cover of an Elegante Welt magazine issue depicting an afternoon dance tea, in which the man holds his female partner so as to show off her fashionable dress. Six people in the image, most of whom are seated at tables and/or looking away, surround them. One woman in a hat and dress looks toward the woman. The image is a black-and-white illustration. The magazine title and issue information are lined up along the top of the page above the image; the image’s title is below. All text is in German.

The Tea-Dance (“Der Tanz-Tee”), Elegante Welt 8:3 (January 29, 1919)

From Chapter 5

“The Tea-Dance” (“Der Tanz-Tee”), Elegante Welt 8:3 (January 29, 1919), inside title page. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. bpk Bildagentur / Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / Art Resource, NY

The left panel of the painting Metropolis, depicting working-class prostitutes sauntering away from the viewer under a brick and metal bridge and past a wounded war veteran on a cobblestone road. The prostitutes are wearing brightly colored dresses, while the veteran wears a faint green outfit with peg legs and crutches. A crazed dog barks at the veteran and a faint figure shows behind the brick underpass of the bridge.

Metropolis (Großstadt), left panel

From Chapter 5

Otto Dix, Metropolis (Großstadt), 1927/28. Tempera on wood panel. left and right panels: 181 × 101 cm; center panel: 181 × 201 cm. Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The center panel of the painting Metropolis, depicting a fashionable jazz club. A woman in green dances the Charleston in the center; a woman in coral and yellow holding a large pink fan poses on the right. A suited jazz band plays on the left, and well-dressed patrons, covered in jewels and ornate brocades, watch the dancing.

Metropolis (Großstadt), center panel

From Chapter 5

Otto Dix, Metropolis (Großstadt), 1927/28. Tempera on wood panel. left and right panels: 181 × 101 cm; center panel: 181 × 201 cm. Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The right panel of the painting Metropolis, depicting nine prostitutes catering to upper-class men. They wear lavish furs and elaborate hairstyles, each wearing brightly colored clothing and headpieces as well. They walk toward the viewer and past ornate architecture and ignore a wounded war veteran who sits on the floor, wearing a faint green outfit with his face in his hand.

Metropolis (Großstadt), right panel

From Chapter 5

Otto Dix, Metropolis (Großstadt), 1927/28. Tempera on wood panel. left and right panels: 181 × 101 cm; center panel: 181 × 201 cm. Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

A page from the social dance issue of Elegante Welt, two illustrations of strappy shoes fill the center of a page: one illustration is an oval shape with a black background and the other, laid over the bottom of the oval, is a diamond shape with a black outline and white background. The shoes resemble the fashionable ones in Dix’s Metropolis painting. In the bottom corners of the page are blocks of German editorial text.

Detail of shoe designs

From Chapter 5

Detail of shoe designs, Elegante Welt, annual dance issue, 16:2 (January 25, 1927): 4. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. bpk Bildagentur / Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / Art Resource, NY

A page from the social dance issue of Elegante Welt with an illustration of women’s dance fashions that resemble the fashions in Dix’s Metropolis. The illustration takes up most of the page and has a group of three women chatting on the right, black space in the center, and a woman and man standing on the left. All of the women are wearing different white dresses with decorations on them, while the man, who is only halfway in the image, wears a suit. Below the image is German editorial text.

“Dress Show on the Dance Floor” (“Toiletten Schau auf dem Tanzparkett”)

From Chapter 5

“Dress Show on the Dance Floor” (“Toiletten Schau auf dem Tanzparkett”), Elegante Welt, annual dance issue, 16:2 (January 25, 1927): 14. Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. bpk Bildagentur / Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / Art Resource, NY

Sepia photograph from the Bauhaus’s Metallic Festival that focuses on the social dance floor. Five pairs dance in closed couple holds; each couple is costumed in metallic clothes and accessories. Shiny objects hang from the ceiling, and the walls are covered with metallic sheets. There is tinsel scattered over the floor and the room is half-empty.

Metallic Party (Metallisches Fest), about 1929, Gelatin silver print, 8.9 x 13.8 cm (3 ½ x 5 7/16 in). Sheet: 11.4 x 17.4 cm (4 ½ x 6 7/8 in.)

From Chapter 6

Rudolph Binnemann, Metallic Party (Metallisches Fest), ca. 1929. Gelatin silver print. 8.7 × 13.9 cm (3 7/16 × 5½ in). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

An invitation to the Metallic Festival made of shiny metallic sheet with orange and black stamped over it, the metallic complementing the theme of the festival. Bold black lettering on diagonals names the festival; a big number 9 highlights February 9th, 1929, the date of the event.

Invitation to the Metallic Festival: A Festival of Bells: Bauhaus-Carnival at the Bauhaus in Dessau (Metallisches Fest: Glocken-Schellen-Klingel-Fest: Bauhaus-Fasching im Bauhaus in Dessau, 9. Febr. 1929), February 9, 1929

From Chapter 6

Metallic Festival: A Festival of Bells: Bauhaus-Carnival at the Bauhaus in Dessau, February 9, 1929 (Metallisches Fest: Glocken-Schellen-Klingel-Fest: Bauhaus-Fasching im Bauhaus in Dessau, 9. Febr. 1929), February 9, 1929. 11 × 15 cm. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

Sepia photograph depicting the staircase from its top at the Bauhaus Dessau during the Metallic Festival. The windows are lined with metal sheets, and the partygoers are dressed in metallic costumes. One of the suited men holds two balloons and stares directly at the camera. Most of the other people are focused on socializing or using the stairs.

Metallic Party (Metallisches Fest)

From Chapter 6

Rudolph Binnemann, Metallic Party (Metallisches Fest), about 1929. Gelatin silver print. 8.9 × 13.8 cm (3 ½ × 5 7/16 in). Sheet: 11.4 × 17.4 cm (4 ½ × 6 7/8 in). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Sepia photograph at the Neue Sachlichkeit festival, showing two women dressed in a costume fashioned like a kickline. A long, oval “skirt” and tube made of papier-mâché connect the two women in a row, and between them is a third fashioned figure’s head; all wear top hats and face the camera.

[Two Female Students in Cylinder Costume], about 1925-1926

From Chapter 6

Irene Bayer-Hecht, [Two Female Students in Cylinder Costume], ca. 1925–26. Gelatin silver print. Image: 8 × 10.1 cm (3 1/8 × 4 in). Sheet: 8.3 × 10.2 cm (3 ¼ × 4 in). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Black-and-white photograph of Marianne Brandt, acting master of the metal workshop, dressed for the Metallic Festival in her own creations. Shown here in a self-portrait, she wears a metal plate on her head with a strap fastener like a hat, and a ball hangs from a large, thick metal ring on her neck like a necklace. She stands facing our right with her head tilted slightly upward.

Self Portrait with Jewelry for the Metallic Festival (Selbstportrait mit Schmuck zum Metallischen Fest)

From Chapter 6

Marianne Brandt, Self Portrait with Jewelry for the Metallic Festival (Selbstportrait mit Schmuck zum Metallischen Fest), February 1929. Museum Folkwang Essen/ARTOTHEK. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

A clip from a black and white silent film, including quick cuts between various social dances. The quick cuts include two pairs of dancers in a ring, a band playing showing various musicians and close-ups on instruments, and couples dancing in the center of a restaurant-like setting, with other guests watching. The clip ends with a close-up on the dancers’ feet.

Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (Berlin, die Symphonie der Großstadt)

From Chapter 4 and Chapter 5

Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (Berlin, die Symphonie der Großstadt), dir. Walter Ruttmann, prod. Karl Freund, Fox-Europa-Film, 1927.

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