Dear Passengers, Introducing: Oskar Schlemmer, the person who composed Triadic Ballet The Stuttgart-born Oskar Schlemmer (1888 - 1943) was a formative figure at the German Bauhaus school in Dessau. His “Triadic Ballet”, premiered at Stuttgarts Wuerttembergian State Theater in 1922 and was an attempt to refresh theater by bringing to it new international trends in the fine arts. Schlemmer never wanted an abstract stage nor a merely mechanical one without human soul. In fact, he aimed for a synthesis of natural art and some artificial technology. Convinced about the healing impact of his new techniques, Schlemmer claimed that “Triadic Ballet” would make people aware of the man-machine relationship and the ‘body as a mechanism’. That he praised the mechanization of life was a consequence of his experience of World War I and the ambience it had generated of death, chaos, maimed bodies and destroyed lives. During the 1920s, much dance in Germany turned away from classical ballets strict regimen to a freedom of movement. Schlemmer, however, went in exactly the opposite direction. His heavy, stiff costumes - made of wood or wire by self-employed craftsmen, painters and sculptors with little or no experience in theaters costume departments – rather limited and hampered motion. Nevertheless, “Triadic Ballet” was an almost revolutionary undertaking! The word Triadic, derived from the Greek, is used because of the way in which the choreography is constructed: there are three dancers (two men, one woman) who perform solos, duos or trios - a total of twelve dances involving circular, triangular and square patterns. Eighteen different costumes were used in Triadic Ballet, each belonging to one of three different series: The first or Yellow Series should be cheerful – burlesque. The second or Pink Series should be festive and solemn and the final one, the Black Series, was intended to be mysterious – fantastical.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 06:57:59 +0000
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