Research on Dance Archives

The research on dance archives at the MUK, which was installed in autumn 2015/16 under the direction of Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Andrea Amort, was carried out in cooperation with the International Rosalia Chladek Society (IGRC) and the Theatermuseum Wien. The main objective was to make access to and research Rosalia Chladek's extensive and multifaceted textual legacy. The project, which was interdisciplinary and limited in time from the beginning, will end in this form in the summer semester of 2023. The material will pass into the possession of the Theatermuseum Wien and thus into the possession of the Republic, as decreed by the IGRC. Andrea Amort will continue her research work with the support of the MUK from autumn 2023 at the Theatermuseum Wien.

Highlights of the research work to date include the major exhibition curated by Amort at the Theatermuseum in 2019—2020, Alles tanzt. Kosmos Wiener Tanzmoderne, the publication of the accompanying book of the same name and the direction of an extensive performative programme with professional dancers as well as with students of the MUK. The variously structured reenactment evenings performed by contemporary artists, including MUK alumni, received special international attention. The broad recognition led, among other things, to a guest performance at the ImPulsTanz 2021 festival.


 Scientific research

Indexing and researching materials of Viennese dance modernism, currently with a focus on Rosalia Chladek and her extensive textual estate.


 Artistic-scientific research

in cooperation with the association Lebendiges Tanz-Archiv Wien

  • choreographic and musical reconstructions
  • contemporary re-enactments

Implemented projects

Current

Tanzprojekt Grete Wiesenthal

Eine Produktion des Vereins Lebendiges Tanz-Archiv Wien

The dance style created by Grete Wiesenthal in Vienna was equipped with a specific system of turning and swinging. It was trend-setting in the early modern age. The New York Times was already interested in this project of Lebendiges Tanz-Archiv Wien in 2020. In the year of 2021, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) made a report about it. The premiere took place on 30 March 2023 (further performances: 31 March & 1 April) at the brut nordwest theatre in Vienna under the title Glückselig. War gestern, oder? Eine Aneignung.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/arts/dance/grete-wiesenthal-solo-waltz-vienna.html (NYT: 24.12.2020)

https://orf.at/stories/3197037 (ORF: 16.2.2021)

https://magazin.wienmuseum.at/briefwechsel-von-grete-wiesenthal-mit-lily-calderon-spitz (Wien Museum Magazin: 21.06.2020)

https://magazin.wienmuseum.at/neue-wege-zu-grete-wiesenthal (Wien Museum Magazin: 27.03.2023)

Guest performances/productions of the Verein Lebendiges Tanz-Archiv Wien

Film showings at Spark Art Fair

From June 25 to 27, 2021, selected films from the reenactment program “Rosalia Chladek Reenacted” and the festival “Touchings. Dance before 1938 - Dance of Today" were screened at the new Viennese Spark Art Fair in the Marxer Halle under the title "Kosmos Wiener Tanzmoderne".

https://www.spark-artfair.com/

Guest performances at the Festival ImPulsTanz 2021

The program "Rosalia Chladek Reenacted", which was originally produced in 2019 for the Theatermuseum Wien, is based on historical materials by Chladek but also by Hanna Berger and Gertrud Bodenwieser including a performative dedication to Gertrud Kraus.

It was performed slightly revised, under the title "Kosmos Wiener Tanzmoderne" at Vienna's MuTh, supporting the festivals actual focus on reconstructions.

The premiere was on July 25th.

https://www.impulstanz.com/

Publications

using previously unpublished material from the Dance Archive

In the volume Die Musikschule der Stadt Wien im Nationalsozialismus, Andrea Amort deals in detail with Rosalia Chladek's defining influence on the artistic and pedagogical education in and the forming of Viennese Dance Modernism. Particular attention is paid to the political and artistic turnaround in the 1930s and Chladek's leadership work at the Vienna Conservatory from 1942 to 1952.

Andrea Amort, „Rosalia Chladeks prägender Einfluss in der künstlerisch-pädagogischen (Aus-)Bildung der Wiener Tanzmoderne. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der politischen und künstlerischen Wende in den 1930er Jahren sowie ihrer Leitungstätigkeit am Konservatorium von 1942 – 1952, in: „Die Musikschule der Stadt Wien im Nationalsozialismus. Eine `ideologische Lehr- und Lerngemeinschaft´, hrsg. von Susana Zapke, Oliver Rathkolb u.a., Hollitzer Verlag, Wien 2020, S. 117 – 147.

The Polish journalist Weronika Kostyrko carried out part of her international research on the dancer Pola Nirenska at the Dance-Archive of the MUK.
Nirenska met Rosalia Chladek in the 1930s and stayed in contact with her after her escape to the USA.

Weronika Kostyrko: Tancerka i zagłada. Historia Poli Nireńskiej, Warszawa: Czerwone i Czarne, 2019.
ISBN 978-83-66219-09-0.
English translation: Dancer and Annihilation: The Story of Pola Nireńska, Warsaw, 2019.

Andrea Amort edited the extensive and elaborately designed publication Alles tanzt. Kosmos Wiener Tanzmoderne with renowned guests as a result of her research for the exhibition with the same name at the Theatermuseum Vienna (2019/20). With English-language abstracts and a lexicon of persons.
ISBN 978-3-7757-4567-3, KHM Museumsverband, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin, 2019

The book is treated as a standard work in the professional world (Volkmar Draeger, tanznetz.de, April 29, 2019). The Süddeutsche Zeitung describes the publication as an first-rate catalog that creates a contemporary historical panorama and makes its subject accessible from all sides (Dorion Weickmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung , 11.09.2019).

The Finnish dance historian Johanna Laakkonen from the University of Helsinki researches, among other topics, the careers of Finnish artists of early European Dance Modernism and their international networking. Her research repeatedly led her to the Dance-Archive at the MUK.

Johanna LAAKKONEN: Anssia yli rajojen. Modernin tanssin transnationaaliset verkostot. Tampere, Finnland, 2018. Englische Übersetzung: Dancing across borders. Transnational networks of early modern dance. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran nimeämien asiantuntijoiden tarkastama. Tampere, Finnland, 2018.
ISBN 978-952-222-930-4

 

Everybody dances. The Cosmos of Viennese Dance Modernism

March 21, 2019—February 10, 2020

Exhibition in the Theatermuseum Wien, Palais Lobkowitz, Lobkowitzplatz 2, 1010 Vienna

During the first third of the 20th century Vienna ranked amongst the most important international centres of Modern Dance. The exhibition, which was organised by Andrea Amort in cooperation ith the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien (MUK), attempted to inscribe significant female dancers into Vienna’s great historical narrative. It focused on dancers, choreographers and teachers such as Isadora Duncan, Grete Wiesenthal, Gertrud Bodenwieser and Rosalia Chladek as well as Valeria Kratina, Gertrud Kraus, Hilde Holger and others who were the pioneers for the European Modernism. The show illustrated the variety and concentration of a female-dominated dance scene which was destroyed by Nazi dictatorship and further developed in exile.

Link to the event: Alles tanzt. Kosmos Wiener Tanzmoderne

Rosalia Chladek Reenacted

In cooperation with Verein Lebendiges Tanz-Archiv Wien:
March 29, 30 and 31, 2019
Eroica Hall, Theatermuseum
Dancers from the independent scene and students of the Music and Art University of the City of Vienna presented historical solos by Rosalia Chladek in a new guise.

Link to the event: Rosalia Chladek Reenacted

Rosalia Chladek Reenacted – Part II

In cooperation with Verein Lebendiges Tanz-Archiv Wien:
October 11, 12 and 13, 2019
Eroica Hall, Theatermuseum.
Artists from the independent scene danced dedications to pioneering personalities of Viennese Modern Dance: Rosalia Chladek, Hanna Berger and Gertrud Kraus.

Link to the event: Rosalia Chladek Reenacted – Part II

bits and pieces 

April 2019 to February 2020.
A total of 33 performances of short dance pieces live as part of the exhibition.
With artists and in cooperation with dance students from the Music and Art University of the City of Vienna (MUK).