Parallel Trends in the Development of German Expressionist Painting and Modern Dance

Abstract

Concurrent trends in the development of Expressionist painting and the genesis of modern dance in Germany can be traced. In no other country in Europe was there such a parallel development between the arts of painting and dance. The French artists of the period designed scenery and costumes for the classic ballet, as did Russian painters. In Italy, Marinetti envisioned the Futurist dance, but no such form ever got beyond the realm of fantasy and literal presentation. Be they painters or dancers, the Expressionists in general strove to produce an art for the time in which they lived, an art free of biased traditions. They created because of “inner images,” “inner experience,” or “inner necessity.” Painters relied on the dynamic tension of color and line and dancers on tension in movement to convey an expression of heightened feeling. Against a background of dance history, works and writings of Expressionist painters have been examined to point out the simultaneous development of the two arts. For example, Sadler who translated Kandinsky's theories of art from German to English, in his own writings, indicates parallels between Kandinsky and Dalcroze. Nolde, a member of the Brücke for a year and a half, sketched his friend, Wigman, while she was studying with Dalcroze and told her of Laban. Wigman, in her dances, united the emphasis on feeling and primitivism of the Brücke artists with the theory of inner necessity of Kandinsky, a Blaue Reiter. Within a relatively short span of time, these artists made a complete break with tradition and created new forms in the realm of art.