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Theater is a means of exploring the formal relationship between moving bodies and space. The stage is a geometrical space, designed to be commensurate to the human body. Man is then an artistic figure. It is from this conjunction that Schlemmer’s interest in dance theater comes.

From then on, the aim is to create a new model of theater, a kind of total theatre where the synthesis of arts is expressed. This new model is theorized and obviously wished to break with the old classical model, whether by the staging, sound, acting, sets, costumes, or colors. The total theater is notably inspired by the circus and its interactions, by the proximity with the spectator, by its circle stage, and by its playful staging (in opposition to classical performances). Schlemmer is also very inspired by puppet automaton shows (The Figural Cabinet II). He attempted to reproduce their automated movements in the ballets of the theater workshop.


The total theater became the scenic translation of the Bauhaus’s turn towards industry. It expresses itself through an aestheticisation of mechanical movements in the space of the stage, a trend that the students reproduced in their own creations. From then on, theater was kind of a discipline opposed to architecture. The former is the implementation of mechanical movements in a world of illusion, while the latter is a static synthesis taking place in the real world.

Antonela Dilber - 05.09. 2024