# Tanztheater > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tanztheater > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tanztheater.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanztheater > Source revision: 1292106474 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Theatrical genre This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Tanztheater" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The [German](/source/Germany) **Tanztheater** ("dance theatre") grew out of German [Expressionist dance](/source/Expressionist_dance) in [Weimar Germany](/source/Weimar_Germany) and 1920s [Vienna](/source/Vienna), and experienced a resurgence in the 1970s. ## History The term first appears around 1927 to identify a particular style of dance emerging from within the new forms of 'expressionist dance' developing in Central Europe since 1917. Its main exponents include [Mary Wigman](/source/Mary_Wigman), [Kurt Jooss](/source/Kurt_Jooss) and [Rudolf Laban](/source/Rudolf_Laban). The term reappears in critical reviews in the 1980s to identify the work of primarily German choreographers who were students of Jooss (such as [Pina Bausch](/source/Pina_Bausch) and [Reinhild Hoffmann](/source/Reinhild_Hoffmann)) and Wigman ([Susanne Linke](/source/Susanne_Linke)), along with the Austrian [Johann Kresnik](/source/Johann_Kresnik). The development of the form and its concepts was influenced by [Bertolt Brecht](/source/Bertolt_Brecht) and [Max Reinhardt](/source/Max_Reinhardt), and the cultural ferment of the Weimar Republic. [Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch](/source/Tanztheater_Wuppertal_Pina_Bausch) became internationally known. Bausch's dramaturge, [Raimund Hoghe](/source/Raimund_Hoghe), created independent productions from 1989. ## Form Tanztheater developed out of German expressionist dance, known as [Ausdruckstanz](/source/Ausdruckstanz). As the Nazi regime diminished artistic vigor in Germany, Ausdruckstanz fell dormant. Both Birringer (1986) and Schlicher (1987) argue that the particular artistic and historical context of post-war Germany informed the genesis of Tanztheater. In the post war years, Tanztheater became more than a mere ‘blend’ of dance and dramatic elements.[1] Tanztheater prioritized expression over form, viewing dance as a method of social engagement.[2] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Noisette, Philippe (2011). *Talk About Contemporary Dance*. Paris: Flammarion. p. 18. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9782080301703](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9782080301703). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Manning, Susan Allene; Benson, Melissa (Summer 1986). ["Interrupted Continuities: Modern Dance in Germany"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1145725). *The Drama Review*. **30** (2): 30. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/1145725](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1145725). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [1145725](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1145725). ## Further reading - Birringer, Johannes H. (1991). *Theatre, theory, postmodernism*. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-253-31195-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-253-31195-0). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [22860336](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/22860336). - [Hoghe, Raimund](/source/Raimund_Hoghe) (1980). "The Theatre of Pina Bausch". *The Drama Review*. **24** (1). Stephen Tree. JSTOR: 63–74. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/1145296](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1145296). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0012-5962](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0012-5962). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [1145296](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1145296). - Klein, Gabriele 2020. *Pina Bausch's Dance Theater: Company, Artistic Practices and Reception*. transcript: Bielefeld, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-3-8376-5055-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-8376-5055-6). - Markard, Anna 1985. Jooss. Cologne: Ballet Bühnen Verlag. - Preston-Dunlop Valerie & Sánchez-Colberg, Ana 2002. *Dance and the Performative*. London: Verve. - [Ana Sanchez-Colberg](/source/Ana_Sanchez-Colberg) (1992) *Traditions and Contradictions: A Choreological Documentation of Tanztheater from its Roots in Ausdruckstanz to Present*. London: Laban Centre. - Sánchez-Colberg, Ana 1992. *You can see it like this or like that*. In Jordan, S and Allen, D.(eds) Parallel Lines. London: Arts Council. - Sánchez-Colberg, Ana 1993. *You put your left foot in…then you shake it all about… Excursions and Incursions into Feminism and Bausch’s Tanztheater.* In Thomas, Helen (ed.). Dance, Culture and Gender London: Routledge, 151–163. - Sánchez-Colberg, Ana 1996. *Altered States And Subliminal Places: Charting The Road Towards A Physical Theatre.* - Schlicher, Susanne 1987. *Tanztheater Traditionen und Freiheiten*. Hamburg: Reinbeck Verlag. Authority control databases International GND National Czech Republic Latvia Israel This European dance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Europe-dance-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AEurope-dance-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Europe-dance-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tanztheater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanztheater) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanztheater?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.