Dance Theatre in Germany / Tanztheater in Deutschland

In two successive months, in October and November 1998, the Jakarta art or more precisely dance lovers, have enjoyed the spectacular performances of 2 German leader dance ensembles, many of the Indonesian public are not aware that Germany is also a paradise for contemporary dance, especially for dance theatre.

The year 1967 marked the rebirth of German Dance theatre, a vivid dance reflects a synthesis of classical ballet with patterns of new dance movements expressing phases of a drama. The history dates back in the 1930th, by Tom Schilling, the chief choreographer at the Komische Oper in Berlin, continued by another famous German choreographer, Kurt Joos, the creator of "The Green Table", he is also the founder of the Folkwang School in Essen in 1928.

Almost four decades later, one of the best Joos’ students, Pina Bausch, took up progressively the ideas of Folkwang teacher, absorbing the aspiration of the student movement by injecting dance with social realism.

It’s worth to note that the leading German choreographers of the first generation studied at the Mecca of dance theatre, New York, for several years. To say some of the best known German choreographers are: Pina Bausch, Johann Kresnik, Susanne Linke, Reinhild Hoffmann, Gerhard Bohner.

The present most active third generation of dance theatre choreographers are: Joachim Schlömer, Urs Dietrich, Daniel Goldin, Sasha Waltz and Henrietta Horn. Some of the reputable dance theatres in Germany among other are: The Bremer Tanztheater, the Darmstadt Dance Theatre, the Wuppertal Dance Theatre and Dance Theatres in Ulm and Weimar. Some German choreographers and dancers are well known not only in Germany, but they have international reputation."

The dancers, themselves, many of them are not German. A German dance critic, Jochen Schmidt, writes "For the German Dance theatre is in true sense of the word an international affair……….".

Suryo S. Negoro

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