LEADER 03273ctm a2200373Ia 4500001 136055 005 20240621182508.0 008 080116s2006 xx rb 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocn191871509 035 136055 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 GV1651 |b.S66 2006 100 1 Song, Ji-Yun. 245 10 Moving bodies and political movement : |bdance in German modernism / |cJi-Yun Song. 264 0 |c2006. 300 viii, 160 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 2006. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-160). 520 This study examines the relationship between aesthetics and politics in early twentieth century Germany by looking at the development of German modern dance, commonly known as Ausdruckstanz. Dance was at the forefront of the "modernist" movement during the Weimar Republic. Under the Nazi regime, modernist dance was used to represent a body politic that privileged choreographies of mass movement. I follow the early career of a pioneering dancer and choreographer, Mary Wigman. An artist who consciously self-identified herself as a "modernist" and yet worked under the Nazi regime, Wigman choreographed for various mass spectacles, including the 1936 Olympic Games. I show how Ausdruckstanz was rooted in the larger cultural context of the so-called Lebensreform movement and developed out of a utopian ideal of social renewal and a new form of "life". In this sense, I argue Ausdruckstanz evades the common association of modernism with "self-referentiality", "irony", and "individualism". By examining the representations of dancing bodies and mass movements in Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens, as well as in Bruno Frank's Politische Novelle and Thomas Mann's "Mario und der Zauberer", I further demonstrate how dance inspired various other arts of the time. In fact, it is through this utopian ideal of Ausdruckstanz that modernism attempted to understand its own aesthetic endeavor and political agenda. When the Nazis came to power, choreographies of mass movement that figured so prominently in Ausdruckstanz also became a highly visible medium for expressing the political ideology of National Socialism. My dissertation contributes to a wider understanding of German modernism by considering the hitherto neglected aspect of "performance" in order to illuminate the aesthetic origin of a politics of "mass movement". 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2007. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Modern dance |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 National socialism and dance. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1158514441&sid=26&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |uhttp://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib136055/3219387.pdf |zHosted by USHMM. 852 0 |bstacks |hGV1651 |i.S66 2006 852 |bwww 852 |bebook