1. Petrified?
Some Thoughts on Practical Research and Dance
Historiography
KATE ELSWIT
Ernst Kállai's 1931 Schrifttanz article bemoaned observation, in which performance functioned as
the way in which dance at the time was living a quasi-laboratory apparatus to isolate and
'above its intellectual means'. The article cited a examine natural processes, to the Dadaist and
work by Oskar Schlemmer to exemplify how the Futurist manifestations whose provocation was
theorization of performances was taking due in part to the use of the stage as a controlled
precedence over their physical manifestations environment for the unknown outcomes of often
onstage. In the published rebuttal, Schlemmer improvised performances. This article, which
claimed his abstractions of the human form had takes as its starting point Schlemmer's familiar
been misunderstood, thus implicitly supporting avant-garde assertion of experimentation as
Kállai's assertion that the primary allegiance of bearer of utopie change, is situated in present
his dances, although appearing regularly in performance research, where so much energy is
performance, was their conceptual framework devoted to legitimizing aesthetic practice as a
rather than their performed outcomes. Only at means of generating critical knowledge. Recently
the end did Schlemmer confront Källai's addressing the question of what might constitute
complaint directly, not refuting its accuracy but dance in place of the 'spectacle of kineticism',
instead arguing for the importance of André Lepecki again identified the keyword to be
experimentation in and indeed as art. 'experimentation' (2006: 43,40). What follows is
Schlemmer's conclusion recalled an extract from a proposal for an alternative dance
his diary, likely an earlier draft of the essay, historiography that is based upon what is
which ended on the speculation: 'For what else is perceived as a contemporary valuation of process
the meaning of experiment if not the next step over product in many professional and
into the future?' (1972: 284). Perhaps it is pedagogical dance contexts, and which has, in
surprising that this debate was published turn, troubled the notion of choreography. I will
seventy-seven years ago, given its present not contend that the sense of critical practice is ' 1 often find myself
agreeing with Birritiger's
topicality: the interrogation of the notion that new to choreography,^ however its current status assessment that the recent
performances are constituted by their end of articulation affords an opportunity to critical attention to
conceptual dance has a
products. However, despite the present's reconsider the ways in which we negotiate tendency to be 'oblivious to
heightened critical awareness of such issues, it historical research. alonghlstory of such
vanguard examination'
seems that certain assumptions continue to be 1 will begin by problematizing certain (J005: ïi). In many
made retrospectively concerning theftxityof respects. Birringer's article
assumptions that remain common to dance's might be seen to offer a
past choreography as product. negotiations with the past, despite the exciting contemporary
toarticulation of Kátiai's
'Experiments' performed by artist-researchers recent attention in volumes edited by Alexandra concern for the
like Schlemmer were essential to the historical Carter (2004) and Stephanie lordan (2000). From relationship between idea
and event.
avant-garde, ranging from the Brechtian act of there, I will consider the feasibility of applying
61
Performance Research 13(1). pp.61-69 O Taylor S Francis Ltd 2008
• 01: 10.10aO/135Zaiû0802i.65565

2. aspects of Michel Foucault's genealogical strategies and benefits of a compact genealogical
analysis to certain instances of dance approach in troubling the 'masterpiece'
scholarship by ascribing an imaginary lineage of mentality that is acquired as dance works age. If
practical research methodology to historical methodology guides observation, then the goal of
choreographic intent. Here the notion of this article is to do no more than propose an
genealogy is explored in a more compact form alternative historiographie frame, one that
than the extended pathways of historical productively calls attention to the instability of
transmission usually advocated by 'genealogies dance's products. As our relationship with past
of performance' (Roach 1996), because the performances often occurs through archives,
reappropriation of archival records and the which house only the objects that remain, it is
identification of disruptions occur across the natural that the performances themselves slip
life-span of singular pieces. This stance is then into a position of objectification. As Rebecca
tested on two dances of early-twentieth-century Schneider writes, 'In the archive, flesh is given to
Germany, presented by the choreographers be that which slips away. Flesh can house no
themselves in different instantiations over memory of bone, only bone speaks to fiesh. Flesh
decades, but which have since been petrified by is blindspot' (2001:102). It is this bone - this
the historical record: Oskar Schlemmer's Triadic fixed object-hood in place of what was also once a
Ballet and Valeska Gert's Canaille. malleable thing - to which the 'petrified' in the
Tbere are countless other potential title of this article refers. 'Petrified' also marks
international examples of artist researchers in the potential anxieties, perhaps about loss of
dance, ranging from Katherine Dunham to control, tbat enforce this solid state.
Yvonne Rainer or Loïe Fuller. However. 1 have Recent performance scholarship has focused
chosen examples from within the research on deconstructing the fixity of the arcbive and
materials with which I interact on a daily basis. the need to escape its rigid, often auratic
In doing so, I have selected one choreographer bindings by establishing a new and polyvocal
who was situated primarily witbin a pedagogical entity that represents the past in dialogue witb a
institution and one situated within a present context.^ We understand the dangers of
' Here I am thinking ot professional one, both of whom considered approaching past work, especially dance: the
two particular sets of themselves and were considered hy their inevitability of change and the falseness of
dialogues relating to the
retrieval of past audiences to be. as was written about Gert, verisimilitude, which are countered by a deep
performances. The first 'Artists who are full of ideas and also want to
includes such archival anxiety over the need to preserve a legacy of
arguments as Schneider's bring these to form' (Hermann l-Neiße], sorts. Yet most arguments on practices of
that interact with Akademie der Künste). It is my contention that
Derrida'sfamous'Archive recreation, reconstruction and reinvention
Fever' essay, and the the mutability of tbeir works was not accidental. assume a degree of finiteness to tbe past. They
second, operating from a
performance perspective, Rather, the variation between instantiations was suggest a heterogeneous present, in many ways a
includes Bertolt Brecht's indicative of these works as manifestations of cubist approach, like Picasso showing a face
historicization and
continues through such embodied research practices, led by process to from many angles, buried inside which is an
recent discussions as accumulate a constellation of results. But how implicit assumption of a single and unified face
Mike Pearson's theatre
archeology. can such a constellation be considered in relation tobe shown.
to more contemporary conceptual practices in
choreography? Or might it perform an inverse FRAMING PRACTICE IN H I S T O R Y /
operation by lending itself to a reconsideration of PRACTICING THE FRAMING O F HISTORY
choreography itself and perhaps even of the ways The multiple pasts I propose here do not fit
in which we document what will become future neatly into history's teleological tendencies, in
history? which time has an inescapable directedness from
I am interested here in the potential scholarly past to present. In one of the seminal texts of
62

3. • Valeslta Gert in Otnatílt,
1919, Photoí: Lili Baruch /
TheaUrwineníchafiliche
Sammlung. Univemtät zu
Köln.
historiography, E. H. Carr answered his own doing so, I wisb to offer alternative access to
question 'what is history?' by discussing the them, perhaps not as works at all, but as
'necessary ignorance' that historians must extended embodied inquiries, whicb were not
increasingly cultivate the closer they came to directed toward a singular outcome as historical
studying their own time. For Carr, the historian's reflection migbt suggest.
task was to discover the facts that developed the Perbaps tben, tbis argument begins in tbe
story of history as they wanted it to be seen, and present witb the heterogeneity of contemporary
to discard the rest as unhistorical in service of artist-researcbers wbose bodies of knowledge are
coherence and consistency (1961:14-15). However intimately tied to their practice. As I have
self-aware such a perspective might be, it still alluded, practice-led researcb, practice-as-
assumed the need for a single coherent narrative, research, practice-based researcb and so fortb
eventually traceable to the 'origin' Foucault witbin the context of bigber education
critiqued for enabling a false field of knowledge constitutes only one of two correspondent loci,
based upon its recovery, rather tban accepting eacb witb its own discussions tbat define
and studying tbe presence of the 'numberless choreograpby in relation to process, thus eacb
beginnings' that could never be restored to offering itself as a potential point of access to
continuity (1977 I19711:145). My desire bere in past works. The complement might be tbose
taking up the proposition of practical research in cboreograpbers working witbin tbe realm of
relation to past choreographic works is to wbat is sometimes called 'conceptual dance', by
acknowledge tbis potential for non-coherence. In creating performances tbat interrogate the tools

4. through which danced expression conventionally as a study of origins. It is through these points I
operates, but doing so through the traditional seek to explore an alternative dance
mechanisms of professional dance commerce, historiography, beginning with 'dispersion'.
including festivals and paid puhlic performances. I have argued that subsequent instantiations
A pertinent example for this discussion of stage accumulate rather than replacing their
practice that is also research might be Xavier Le predecessors. Likewise, Foucault argues that 'to
Roy's E.X.T.E.N.S.LO.N.S. project, which follow the complex course of descent is to
attempted to create a situation that, according to maintain passing events in their proper
Le Roy 'should be at the same time the product dispersion' (1977 I19711:146). The witnessing of
and the production of the performance and the such dispersion requires that the genealogist
research on the questions related to it' (quoted in partakes in an exhaustive collection of source
Husemann). The almost-compulsory mentions in material. Just as a genealogical approach does
3 Given such open time articles and reviews of Le Roy's background as a not reject history hut rather demands the
processes, the
historiography argument molecular biologist testify to the perceived re-envisioning of it as raw material, practical
I am making might liminality between performance and research in
correspond most closely research involves a shift of artistic
to discussions on tbe his work. consciousness from product to process, opening
preservation of more
fluid performances. The The connection between the two contexts of both original creations and historical reflection
open work, for example, practical research, those within pedagogical and on them to doubt by undermining singular
is defined not by a set of
consistent features but those within commercial frames, can be drawn by outcomes. Here, Foucault's Nietzsche-inspired
by its ontology of flux, as suggesting that hoth participate in what Susan 'effective' history might be introduced, as it
visible in the Fluxus
events of the 1960s, and Melrose has articulated as a discipline-specific abstains from narratives that generate
tberefore it has been 'expert intuition', the operations of which drive continuity by dealing with relational changes in
noted that any act of
preservation must the exploration of ideas through leaps that are place of occurrences. An event in 'effective'
account for the salient history is not 'a decision, a treaty, a reign or a
regularities which can only later recuperated (2005). Melrose argues
and do change over time. that all disciplines participate in and are driven battle, but the reversal of a relationship of forces,
The open work has no the usurpation of power, the appropriation of a
original nor singular by such intuitive connections. However, it seems
ideal performance tbat to me that both forms of practical research are vocabulary' (154). Thus, a compact genealogical
provides a benchmark for inquiry into dance history would not privilege
all subsequent united by a particular shared version of this
perfortnanees; instead intuition, one that can cause problems for the status ofthe performance's eventhood over
tbere exists only a set of the play of forces within the research practice
clear originating ideas archiving in a present context, as Melrose
that generate all recently has noted, not to mention for relating to that contributed to its coming into being.
instantiations of tbe
performance, meaning the past. The discussion of intuition is crucial in Though such an approach implicitly relies on
that any historical destabilizing the solidity of choreographic non-dominant forms of knowledge, including
account must address the
way in wbich tbe products by drawing attention to the selections perhaps kinetic intelligence, this is also where
performance 'has a made between numerous possible outcomes at Foucauit's conception of genealogy appears in
"career", a bistory, ratber
than an essential nature' each moment in the process of creation.^ The most marked contrast to forms of practical dance
(Rubidge 2000)- Unlike contemporary focus on practical research has
many open works, research. For Foucault, genealogy analyses how
bowever, wbich often emphasized and articulated the to-some-extent tbe body is 'imprinted' or 'inscribed' by history
eclipse authorial open nature of all dance-making - its intuition,
presence entirely, the {147-8). It implies a passive body whereas the
historical performances 1 contingency, and chance - in a manner that can nature of practical research in dance involves an
am considering were be applied not only to the present, but to the past.
driven toward inverted proposition of agency in whicb the
differentiation and As I can obviously not account for the whole of dancing bodies are not only inscribed but also
variation by a single practical research in this proposal, I wish to call
central figure and tbat inscribing. This active participation generates
person's research attention to the places at which certain of its heterogeneous and varied results that are not
questions. principles can be seen to correspond to entirely dispersed in the longitudinal
Foucault's genealogical interrogation of history transmission and dissemination of cultural
64

5. practices commonly associated with notions of left. It was a short solo, called in 1921 a 'true work
performance genealogy as they have come to be of genius', which appeared repeatedly from the
utilized by Roach, Diana Taylor and Ramsey Burt, late teens onwards in Germany as well as
among others; instead they cluster around internationally in cities including London, Paris,
singular research figures. Nonetheless, the New York and Moscow. In 1922, Canaille was
intersections between genealogical inquiry and staged in a cabaret curated by Brecht, was filmed
practical research can be used to facilitate the by Suse Byk in 1925, and the piece seems to bave
mapping of present understandings of remained with Gert for most of her life, because a
choreography as process onto the past. 1977 documentary by Volker Schlöndorff
In the two examples 1 have chosen, the captured her a few months before her death
choreographers implemented their practice in upstaging a young performer to whom she had
very different ways despite their shared epoch, taught it. Given that the nature of Gert's staged
however both practices prohlematize the stability practice was entirely bound to the relationship
of choreography as product when framed in this she maintained with her audience. Canaille also
manner. Because Valeska Gert was concerned functioned emblematically, with the prostitute as
with issues of the social body, her process was the social ñgure whose body most often served as
catalyzed by the presence of her audience, and a site of public interaction.
therefore her experimentation - her testing of Gert claimed Canaillewas not improvised
accepted limits - occurred in the moment of because the movements were set, but that the
performance. In contrast, Oskar Schlemmer's structure of the piece allowed her to experience it
initial laboratory for the abstract body was the differently each time, due to changes in the
secure framework of letters and diaries in which underlying emotion. In various writings, she
he formulated his ideas. Whereas Gert's stage described how the girl enjoyed her work some
practice coristituted her research, it seems more days, despised it others, was indifferent, spiteful,
accurate to say that Schlemmer's research was chaste, giddy, depraved. Despite her claim, the
hii practice, with the performances themselves movement itself changed too, sucb as the orgasm
as means to share what he saw as predetermined of the two filmed versions. In the 1925 film, Gert
results, but which often took on quite other broke into a Charleston of sorts, with high energy
meanings for his audiences who expected that and frenetic kicks, whicb was then emptied of
life as her legs continued mechanically, tossing * Because any
which was performed to be a stable product. In genealogical analysis
both cases, the staging of production (not only her torso about. At the same moment of the 1977 requires exhaustive raw
film, she began with tiny jumps, each jostling her material while the space
the production) ultimately reframed reception, allotted for references is
lending itself also to examining the nature of the body, but suddenly stopped and began to sing limited, I have chosen not
to reference
relationship between the two artists and their instead. And it was natural that this same independently each
audiences. narrative event had two outcomes in these two quotation or paraphrase
in the two case studies,
times and places. although I am happy to
1. S T A G E PRACTICE AS RESEARCH Despite the claim not to improvise, Gert herself provide that information
upon request. All
All of Valeska Gert's solos followed a basic described how she could rehearse a piece quotations come from
narrative structure: an introduction, a tragic or limitless times, but that it would always appear German language
newspapers, books, and
comic climax and then a resolution, which was different on stage, no matter how carefully it had magazines published
developed in tension between her been prepared. That this led some reviewers to during the Weimar
Republic, and
overdetermined goals to revolutionize theatre critique her for performing 'only variations translations are my own.
and her beliefs in chance and intuition as instead of accomplished composition' (Kuc. The majority of sources
are housed in Deutsches
entering to assist humans where the cleverest Isigned] |date unknownl) suggests a Tanzarchiv Köln, Archiv
calculations cease.^ In Canaille, a prostitute contemporary awareness of the ways in which der Akademie der Künste,
and Baubaus Archiv.
solicited a John, performed her services and then she undermined the production of dance as

6. object. One review by Fritz Böhme explained this audiences saw one of many 'half-naïve, half-
instability as arising because her dances were depraved' streetwalkers, through wbom inquiry
not a thing learned and subsequently projected into tbe social was mapped onto inquiry into the
outside of herself. Rather, they 'become every formal: 'Vateska Gert does indeed not uncover
time newly created in the moment of production' herself, but rather the sexuality of dance' (L.
in such a way that the performance 'guarantees [signedl 1977 I1926I). Tbe same review explained
genuineness and artistic veracity' (Böhme tbat Gert proved tbe absurdity of bourgeois
[1930I). Why I cite this review in particular, of the dance through a gradual disrobing of identity,
many that commented on her presentness, is that witb her effect on an audience accomplished over
Böhme also articulated and praised what I might a long period of development tbat involved
identify as the main line of inquiry occurring in multiple alterations.
Gert's performances: the relationship she What caused Gert to be labelled as grotesque in
successfully established with her audience by her time might alternately be understood as an
developing her artistic forms from a process that experimental study of making visible hodily
was experientially of tbe moment, in a scenario excess tbat had been developed from observation
engineered to test tbe boundaries of wbat could of tbe normal and tbe everyday. These natural
be accomplished through expression tbat was forms were tben dissected and magnified, tbeir
both physical and social. Böhme wrote that 'the boundaries tested in concert witb tbe audience. As
artist must every time conquer ber audience one writer put it, sbe created scraps of dance from
anew, must also be prepared to give berself to scraps of tbe times. Tbough Gert called Canaille
them". He claimed tbat tbe success of her creation ber first socially critical dance pantomime, the
was 'as a unity between artist and spectator dance was not simply a parody, nor even an
much deeper, compléter, closer than with a ñxed indictment of a society tbat allowed prostitution.
production'. By allowing herself to publicly experience the full
Gert famously claimed sbe was no solo dancer; trajectory of tbe event, from solicitation through
tbat the audience was her partner. However I coitus and aftermath, Gert migbt have been
might push tbat further to suggest tbe audience studying wbat it meant actually to sell one's body,
was her catalyst. In the way that some dancers go a practice heightened by the presence of an
into a studio, Gert set herself under a spotlight, audience that had indeed paid to watcb ber body
situating ber body as a social body and of it. This undergo the process. The sharing of this event
was true of all ber pieces but perbaps tbe witb an audience was in itself a second
prostitute brought her social body to its most experimental practice tbat actualized the first.
literal fulfillment, implicating the audience in
sucb a way tbat tbe film director Sergei 2. STAGING RESEARCH AS PRACTICE
Eisenstein described her as "only barely social Like Gert, Oskar Schlemmer sought to research
satire. But sbe is one-bundred percent pure nitric formal change but, in place of tbe audience, the
acid for bourgeois ideology' (1987:121). Reviews need for aestbetic change itself was bis catalyst.
of Canaille tended to combine ratber graphic Thougb Triadic Ballet's instantiations are often
descriptions that comment on tbe social pligbt of referenced as a single entity - 'Oskar Schlemmer's
tbe prostitute witb observations tbat dance-of-tbreeness' - sucb pbrasing suggests an
foregrounded Gert's performance tecbniques, ontological stability tbat was incompatible with
most notably an empatby that enabled one the way in whicb bis performances were
reviewer to understand, as he had not before, tbe repeatedly broken down to tbeir constituent
intimacies of tbe prostitute's act: how 'pleasure elements and reassembled. Pbotographs and
and torment could come from tbe same hole' programmes clearly demonstrate the multiple
(Tucholsky 1978119211:204). In Canaille, reconfigurations that 7Viûdic ßu//et underwent
66

7. from its 1922 premiere with three dancers and
twelve costumes in a three-color series. It is this
Triadic Ballet, discussed in Schlemmer's famous
'Man and Art Figure' essay, which is most often
described in place of acknowledging the
heterogeneous subsequent instantiations, of
which I count seven primary ones, with an
additional one planned but never carried through.
These reduced the work from evening-lengtb
concert dance to smaller works and hybrid forms
fit into a variety of performances venues. The
order of the colour series was first rearranged and
then that division eliminated altogether; the
music was changed at least three times; and the
number of dancers quadrupled to twelve, then
dropped to seven. Not only did the number of
costumes change, but at times they were even lent
to other performances, one of which retained the
same title.^ If such mutability of aesthetic
identity defined Triadic Ballet's modernity, as has Schlemmer's expectations of them, as Kállai • Karl Heining, Daisy Spies
and Carl von HachI in Triadic
been suggested, it was not because the products suggested. Schlemmer wrote at length about tbe Ballet, Donaueschingen
were deliberately multiplied but because the 1926 Atelier Crill, Courtesy
development of Triadic Ballet out of his personal Deutschem Tanzarchiv Köln
performances were constituted by their quest for a 'metaphysical revue', which be
processes. believed would manifest most prominently with
Where Gert had used the stage for research tbe costumes used in the original last section of • The most startling
>
mutation, in 192b, was
into human social nature. Schlemmer searched the dance. It was this third series where when the costumes were
Schlemmer demanded the most of his costumes rented to a revue at the
for a purely physical nature: the laws of the Mctropol Theatre in
human body that freed it not only from society in transforming the human bodies that wore Berlin for three months.
them, and thus here that the audiences were Although the version was
but from emotional affect. It is clear that actuallychoreographed
Schlemmer was never interested in the called upon to make the greatest imaginative by a Russian ballet
leaps in order for the performance practice to mistress anti featured all
mechanization of the body for its own sake, but twelve costumes onstage
instead wanted to explore the potential for fulfill the intentions of Schlemmer's research. at once, reviews of the
One critic described how the 1922 audiences were performance and even
physical mechanics as starting points for Schlemmer himself did
aesthetic transformations. However the taken at first hy the merriment of the dance's not distinguish this
picturesque costumes, but that, as the piece instantiation from any of
placement of any form of research within the the others, referring to it
public domain performs a solidifying operation, progressed, and Schlemmer's deeper ideas only as'Oskar
became evident in tbe third series, it was that Schlemmers Triadic
making it a cultural object, and cultural objects Ba//ef'. This chronology
section 'which initially appears foreign and is most clearly detailed
are always tied to a valuing group. Though
alienating. Thus was pleasure and applause after by Scheper (1977).
Schlemmer's writings articulate repeatedly his however, telltale signs of
the first series much stronger than at the end.' it appeared in
desire to display the inherent mechanisms of
Similarly, many reviews from early instantiations Schlemmer's diaries
dancing bodies, most contemporaneous reviews when he, for example,
complain of Schlemmer's attempts to fix too discussed the hiring of
make reference only to the mechanization of his
much meaning through readings of Heinrich von multiple female dancers.
dancers, whicb is more than a semantic issue.
Kleist's essay on the puppet theatre, referencing,
In part, this may be due to the fact that, as
for example, his burdening of Kleist as a
manifestations of research ideas, tbe 'compurgator' and suggesting that the piece
performances may have been overloaded by

8. would be far better if its theoretical search for bad not been fully animated by tbe dancers.
legitimacy were left aside so that its playful Interestingly, this review finished by noting tbat
framework not be overextended. Scblemmer had an impressive idea wbicb 'must
^ Toepfer notes that. In place of utilizing the era's increased be followed up with diligence,' as thougb it were a
because the Bauhaus was new work and not already ten years old. My
a plastic art schoo] and
technological capacity to create dazzling
not a dance institution, displays, Schlemmer had sought to show the interest in approaching bistorical dance works as
the lack of obhgation to a natural mechanics already inherent in bodies. In potential practical researcb is to ftnd ways to
structured movement
curricula resulted the process, he forced human bodies to bear the deal with exactly those idiosyncrasies and
positively in the weight and limited range of motion from the incongruences tbat might otherwise be
experimental nature of
their works, bul it also awkward costumes, leaving many reviewers overlooked without tbe discontinuities enabled
may have prevenled troubled by tbe difficulty tbe dancers faced in by the dispersion of a genealogical approacb. ln
fuSfillnient of certain
dancerly possibilities in managing the costumes of Triadic Ballet, which particular, as in both examples, tbe reframing of
the performances (1997: remained rigid rather than conforming to the some historical performances as part of practical
mutability of the human form. Obviously, this researcb processes may help to address certain
was exaggerated by contrast to the particular issues in their reception. Having said all tbis,
suppleness traditionally expected of dancers. however, I am uncertain I will ever be
And it is also likely that those audience members comfortable witb the anachronism of applying
who commented on the 'failure' of the perfornners the term "practical research' to bistorical
by traditional standards of excellence missed processes, in place of the term 'experiment' tbat
that the dancers were first serving another idea. was so often used. Altbougb it migbt, to some
But it was also particular to the fact that, as extent, be valuable to push forward in making tbe
many reviewers commented, Schlemmer's full analogy between Gert's staged practice as
dancers were not always capable of physically researcb and the audience-centric researcb of
fulfilling the tasks he conceived for them, due to conceptual dance or between Oskar Schlemmer's
a lack of tecbnical training.^ One review relationship to the Baubaus and tbe more
discussed Schlemmer (under bis stage name) as institutionalized forms of practical researcb in
demonstrating 'an almost touching higher education today, I am concerned about tbe
unconsciousness of technical incapacity' (O.K. scholarly ethics of such a full-fledged
Isigned] 1922). Similarly otbers describe his proposition.
'inadequate troupe' and mention that it might A recent article has taken up tbis prospect to
bave been Scblemmer's own fault that Triadic discuss Scblemmer's research practice, by
Ballet did not receive tbe recognition he situating him as an anomalous example of
anticipated since '"post-modern work' on tbe grounds of his
'embodied thinking' (Trimingham 2004:128,132).
|hle allowed his work to be presented by a troupe
Such extraction of Schlemmer from bis own
that did not possess today's intensive body- and
spatial-feeling, which he himself so often has context may not allow for the complexity of his
proclaimed as the prerequisite of his own dancerly relationship to his own time, nor tbe possibility
ideas. Because of that, the performance remained in I raise here, that his performances constituted
fact only a Bauhaus fashion show, driven by only one of many such contemporaneous projects
conventional balletic grace. (Michel 1932:13) of experiment through performance. To draw
attention to my own process, I might admit that
A CONCLUSION BY WAY OF A FEW I found myself drawn to a line in tbe original
THOUGHTS ON TRANS-HISTORICALITY Performance Research call for papers tbat began:
A review of Triadic Ballet from a 1932 dance 'If choreograpby begins to cballenge conceptions
competition in Paris noted tbe 'welcome novelty' of bow bodily movement produces dance as an
of tbe 'exact mathematical deliberation' wbicb object...' It seems to me tbat dance may not
68

9. always or ever be an object in its own time but is Wissenschaft. 7-9,1925-1927. NendeinA,ichtenstein:
often petrified in retrospect through the Klaus Reprint, 169.
mechanisms of preservation and the operations Lepecki. André (2006) Exhausting Dance: Performance
of historical reflection. Still, I remain torn and the Politics of Movement, New York: Routiedge.
whether it is more important that we use Melrose, Susan (2005) * "... just intuitive ..." ' (May)
contemporary terminology to facilitate increased <http://www.sfmelrose.u-net.com/justintuitlve/>
intimacy with historical choreography or Michel, Artur (1932) "Triumph deutscher Tanzkunst in
terminology ofthe time in order to contextualize Paris' VoÁSische Zeitung, |u!y. Deutsches Tanzarchiv
it. In this case the contemporary formulation Köln.
may be useful in private, itself just a process and O.K. (signed) (1922) 'Württembergishes Landestheater:
not a product, as a means to approach the past's Das triadische Ballet', Schwab Merkur. 2 October. 432.
more fleshy possibilities. Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln.
Roach, Joseph R. (1996) Cities ofthe Dead: Circum-
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