Sep 18 / Week 5 - Meeting 10 / Body: Mary Wigman's Technique
1. What is expressionism?
expression allowed to break from tradition and explain avante-garde art. It also allowed it to override impressionism.
2. What aspect of Schonberg's music could have influenced Wigman's ideas about dance?
Schonberg’s music could have influenced Wigman’s ideas about dance because it gave moments of pause for breath and allowed to create movement that allows to explore choreography that can tell a story. Every sound seemed to have reflect a time of emotion which would have been tied to a dance movement which would reflect the tone of the music.
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Introduction
Today
we will review Wigman's concept of technique differ from Laban's ideas about the organization of movement in space. Her ideas
about the liberation of dance from traditional, predetermined steps, besides utilizing improvisation and an internal sense
of motion, rhythm and expressive gesture, also included a technique based on contrasts of movement; expansion and contraction, pulling and pushing.
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Learning Objectives
- Understand the application of the idea of "dance discovering its own terms of expression" (1)
- Explain how "liberation from traditional, predetermined steps" helps the dancer to develop body expression
- Gain awareness of the possibilities that "honoring an internal sense of motion" brings to the dancer's expressive movement.
- Experience the body's inner "rhythm and expressive gesture" to develop your own sense of "depth and sophistication" when dancing
- Reflect on the work done in class
IV
Main Lesson
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3
Video
INFLUENCES
Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter
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Students discuss among themselves Mary Wigman's ideas about dance. Using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.
Question 1
Based on this video, what is expressionism?
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LINKS: Reading
Check the link and scroll down to page 110.
Analysis
Question 2
After reading the article on "Schools of Bodily Expressivity: Mary Wigman," what was the main difference between Laban and Wigman in terms of dance?
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Wigman’s Technique
Mary Wigman worked upon a technique based on contrasts of movement; expansion and contraction, pulling and pushing.
Activity 1
Students try Wigman's movements
Her technique is structured in five main groups:
1 - Striding and sliding
2 - Springs, vibrations and bouncing
3 - Momentum and oscillations
4 - Falling and dropping (floor technique)
5 - Tensions: relaxed, sustained and motor tensions
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A Note to Remember
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Case Study
Video
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, and a central element of his music was its use of motives as a means of coherence. Schoenberg created new methods of musical composition involving atonality, which may have influenced the ideas about movement developed by Wigman. In this video, Leonard Bernstein, an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian, explains Schoenberg's atonality.
Berstein on Arnold Schönberg's music
Question 3
After watching Bernstein's presentation on Schönberg's music, what aspect of Schonberg's music could have influenced Wigman's ideas about dance?
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Impressionism:
It describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.
Tonality:
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is called the tonic.
Atonality:
Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality, in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a single, central triad is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another.
Chromatic Scale:
(Or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches used in tonal music.
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Introduction
Today we will review Wigman's concept of body expression. Her ideas about the liberation of dance from traditional, predetermined steps by the utilization of improvisation and the honoring of an internal sense of motion, rhythm and expressive gesture grew in depth and sophistication as Wigman studied and collaborated with Rudolf von Laban from 1913-1919.(1) Mary Wigman (born November 13, 1886, Hanover, Germany—died September 18, 1973, West Berlin) was a German dancer, a pioneer of the modern expressive dance as developed in central Europe.
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Learning Objectives
- Understand the application of the idea of "dance discovering its own terms of expression" (1)
- Explain how "liberation from traditional, predetermined steps" helps the dancer to develop body expression
- Gain awareness of the possibilities that "honoring an internal sense of motion" brings to the dancer's expressive movement.
- Experience the body's inner "rhythm and expressive gesture" to develop your own sense of "depth and sophistication" when dancing
- Reflect on the work done in class
IV
Main Lesson
1
Schools for expressionist dance had special philosophies and emphases for dance, such as naturalness, breathing, tension / relaxation etc. It was often associated with floor contact, "weight" of dance movements, and experiments with music. Body and physicality were strongly emphasized.
Rudolf Laban was a theoretical prominent figure who was based on metaphysical ideas and one of the pioneers of Ausdruckstanz in Germany. From 1913-1918, Laban operated a school for art on the colony Monte Verita in Ascona, Switzerland, which became a teaching centre for the new dance. Among his students were Kurt Jooss and Mary Wigman.
Mary Wigman was an important trendsetter as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. In
her school in Dresden (opened in 1920) she taught Europe's premier
aspiring dancer.
In this video Harald Kreutzberg, Wigman's student and dance partner, dances the expressionist piece Dispute with God. Why can we call this dance piece expressionist?
Howling Near Heaven: Twyla Tharp and the Reinvention of Modern Dance
Marcia B. Siegel
Read: (Page 6, last paragraph, 7 and 8)
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Howling_Near_Heaven/XG5xDAfa0FcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=modern+Dance&printsec=frontcover
Siegel, Marcia B. (2006). Howling Near Heaven: Twyla Tharp and the Reinvention of Modern Dance. McMillan
Question 7
Summarize the main ideas explained on page 6, 7 & 8.
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Activity 1
VIII
Abstract Expression of Emotions
1. Vanity
2. Surprise
3. Greed
4. Sadness
5. Hate
6. Happiness
7. Fear
8. Love
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Journaling
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Glossary
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Sources
1. Mary Wigman: German modern dance pioneer, performer, choreographer, teacher. https://dance.washington.edu/people/mary-wigman
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Students' Work
Liliana Li
Assignment #4: Mary Wingman’s Technique
Question #1:
Expressionism is an artistic movement where the main goal is to express strong emotions
and inner feelings rather than accurately represent the outside world. In expressionism, artists use
exaggeration, distortion, and bold choices in color, movement, or form to show their emotional
experience, making the audience feel the intensity of what they are expressing.
Question #2:
The main difference between Laban and Wigman in terms of dance is that Laban focused
on organizing movement in space through structured patterns and analyzing how the body
moves, while Wigman emphasized expressing deep emotions through movement. Wigman
believed that dance should come from an internal feeling and personal experience, using
contrasts like expansion and contraction, rather than following a fixed system.
Question #3:
One aspect of Schönberg's music that undeniably impacted Wigman's ideas about dance
is his use of atonality, by which music just moves freely without following traditional standards
of harmony. This breaking free from structure is the same manner in which Wigman broke from
traditional, predetermined dance steps towards improvisation and expression of emotion. Just as
Schönberg's music developed a new form of freedom with sound, Wigman's dance sought a new
form of freedom with movement.
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