»Formensport« – a dance performance based on Kurt Schmidt’s Mechanical Ballet

On Saturday 9 March, »Formensport« – a project under the BAUHAUS OPEN STAGE programme organised by the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Professor of Building Morphology, and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation – is being premiered at the Heizhaus Altenburg.

 

Under the guidance of Dr. Luise Nerlich (Weimar) and Torsten Blume (Dessau), students worked together across disciplines to create a dance performance where the motions of oscillating, straightening and bending, swivelling and stretching, managing and synchronising, encircling and turning play a decisive role.

»Formensport« is inspired by Bauhaus student Kurt Schmidt’s »Mechanical Ballet«. In 1923, Schmidt sought to give ‘the era’s technical imprint [...] new opportunities for dance expression’ and transfer machine principles, i.e. standardisation and monotonisation, to the world of dance. 

Students in the faculties of Media, Civil Engineering, and Architecture and Urbanism spent the winter semester developing movements, scenography and costumes, and can be seen as performers onstage.

»Formensport« will be presented at Gera Theatre in Gera and the Altenburg State Theatre in Altenburg as part of »bewegten.bauhaus.bilder«. For the BÜHNE TOTAL Bauhaus Festival in September 2019, alongside »Formensport« the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is also inviting international artists, designers, teachers and students to come to Dessau and tackle key experimental perspectives on the history of Bauhaus on the stage. A further exhibition will take place as part of Denkraum.Bauhaus, the sixth international symposium on the mediation of architecture and federal congress of art teachers.

Formensport: a dance performance based on Mechanical Ballet (1923) by Kurt Schmidt (1901–1991)

Heizhaus Altenburg

Theaterplatz 19

04600 Altenburg

Performances:
09/03/2019, 7:30 pm Heizhaus Altenburg
23/03/2019, 5:30 and 8 pm Bühne am Park, Gera
05/04/2019, 7:30 pm Bühne am Park, Gera
12/09/2019 Open Stage Festival, Bühne Total, Dessau
28/09/2019 Denkraum.Bauhaus, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar