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Debra McCall
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Lecture and Film
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Space Dance Raumtanz
In Space Dance, three dancers—blue, red, and yellow—trace geometric patterns on a gridded floor, with the respective tempi of slow, medium, and fast. Each represents not only time and color, but also, temperament. By padding and masking the dancers, Schlemmer reiterated the Bauhaus principals of uniformity of elements and standardization through abstraction. Schlemmer prophetically envisioned dancers in a black box 50 years prior to Pac-Man.
Pole Dance Stäbetanz
In Pole Dance, the inherent anatomical proportion of the human figure is extended into space via 12 poles, engaging the geometry of abstract space to create a dance of the Golden Mean or Golden Section.
Form Dance Formentanz
Schlemmer asked “What type of forms emerge when dancers improvise using props of primary shapes?”
Flats Dance Kulissentanz
This whodunnit mystery asks, “What is going on behind the stage wings?”
Metal Dance Metalltanz
Metal Dance evokes the medieval sensibility present in Gropius’s vision of the Bauhütten, the guild huts surrounding the cathedral.
Hoop Dance Reifentanz
White hoops create optical illusions against the blackened cubical stage space as the dancer configures them in a variety of ornamental patterns.
Figure in Space Kunstfigur
The Lecture Dances begin with Figure in Space. The figure delineates the architectonic stage space—lines, planes, volume.
Block Play Baukastenspiel
A parody of the competition amongst architects at the Bauhaus, dancers in Block Play create their own constructions, compete, and finally unite to create a “tower,” a play on the cathedral woodcut on the cover of the 1919 Bauhaus Manifesto.
Gesture Dance Gestentanz (not included here)
Outfitted with glasses, mustaches and coattails, the figures in Gesture Dance engage in a playful nonsensical conversation of abstract gesture. They plot, whisper, laugh, jump onto the furniture, and dance to a toy piano.