The PhD Thesis Booklet
GABRIELLA VINCZE
History of Hungarian Movement Art and International Parallels of Some of its Motifs
Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Humanities Art History Doctoral School of Science
Supervisor: Dr. László Beke, CSc
Budapest • 2015
GABRIELLA VINCZE
History of Hungarian Movement Art and International Parallels of Some of its Motifs The PhD Thesis Booklet
Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Humanities Art History Doctoral School of Science Supervisor: Dr. László Beke, CSc Head of Doctoral School: Dr. György Kelényi, DSc Committee members: Dr. György Kelényi, DSc (chairman) Dr. András Rényi, PhD (opposer) Dr. János Fügedi, PhD (opposer) Dr. Annamária Szőke, PhD (secretary) Dr. Katalin Keserü, PhD (member) Dr. Anna Eörsi, PhD (member) Dr. Julianna Ágoston, PhD (member)
Budapest • 2015
The purpose and scope of research
The movement art (eurhythmics /free dance/ modern dance) is the „reform dance movement” of first half of the 20th century, the homeland of which was in the German speaking countries. Under the term „reform dance movement” the harmonious bodily movement as a form of artistic expression is meant, which was developed at the end of the 19th century by the same social and artistic problems that resulted in the development of avant-garde movements in fine arts. So it was a life reform movement and a form of art at a time, the aim of which was to reform the dance. Instead of ballet losing its quintessence this reform movement wanted to create a new, honest and expressive dance art which constitutes an integral part of life and in which the lost nature and the unity of body and soul prevail again. New or rediscovered gestures, motions and theatrical forms were searched. This so-called „expressive dance” was born during the era of the art nouveau style and later was affected by the expressionism. Later, around 1925 the modern dance became to decline parallel to the depression of expressionism. Its foreign artists, Mary Wigman, Rudolf Laban and Kurt Jooss simultaneously stated that the expressive dance alone was not enough and it had to be put on a new basis. In Hungary the „new catholicist”dance (Dienes school), the „new folklorism”(Szentpál school) or the surrealistic dance (Madzsar–Palasovszky group) might have been the response to this crisis. Similarly to Kurt Jooss, in Hungary several people, among them Olga Szentpál and Sára Berczik, realized that a systematic education was needed in modern dance. The dance serves the expression of the essence. And in case if the seizure of human emotions is considered to be the essence as a main goal, the ballet and the modern dance are not rivals any more, but they are only tools or techniques applied in the course of the performance. In the 1930s the Hungarian modern dance did not consider the ballet as a rival. In the education of the most significant schools the ballet was involved, but it was considered a tool of”expressive dance” and „capturing the essence”. The Hungarian modern dance, which was mainly the genre of the progressive citizenry, was undermined by the events of World War II and the new political power structure. Thus basic research is needed even at present. The thesis deals with the art of the most important five schools of modern dance (Dienes, Madzsar, Szentpál, Kállay and Berczik). It reflects the current status of a long-term research. Our goal is the identification of 5
smaller schools besides the description of history of modern dance as there are lots of unanswered questions and unexplored areas. Another goal is the description of high correlations and dance historical phenomena as well as the wording of certain parallels of international dance works. At the moment the extensive monographic studies would lead to misleading and incomplete results due to the several dozens of unexplored works and the several decades of concealment and falsification of history (which were committed e.g. by Palasovszky in line with the existing system at that time). It is believed that the Hungarian modern dance is the part of fine art, photography and architecture history research, partly because the boundaries between art forms blurred in this era, e.g. Rudolf Laban or Alexander Sakharoff were artists as well. In the Hungarian modern dance at the beginning of the Dienes school nearly all the students were involved in applied arts as well, and many of them studied painting in Hungary or abroad (Munich). This interoperability can also be observed in the other schools: Kata Kálmán or Kata Sugár later became photographers, Máriusz Rabinovszky and Iván Hevesy are both art historians and dance historians. On the other hand essentially the modern dance was built on other social base compared to ballet: it was the genre of artists, scientists and intellectuals. As this genre was popular mostly among women, whose brothers, sisters, husbands or parents were architects or artists, the modern dance was in contact somehow with the history of architecture and history of painting as well (e.g.Flóra Korb’s father Flóris Korb and her sister Erzsébet Korb;Clarisse Bierbauer’s brother Virgil Borbíró;Kató Engel’s husband Pál Wild; Irén Preisich’s brother Gábor Preisich; Vera Berény’s father Róbert Berény etc.). Thirdly the main goal of modern dance was to renew the dance, in the staging of performances the most significant artists of the first half of the 20th century contributed to the performances as scenery or costume designers, graphic designers, or photographers like Sándor Bortnyik (Szentpál and Madzsar school), Hugó Scheiber (Madzsar school), Róbert Berény (Kármán school), Elza Kövesházi Kalmár (Madzsar school) and André Kertész (Szentpál school). So the author believes that the thesis can offer some information to their artistic career, as practically the activities of Bortnyik or Berény in this field of arts are unexplored. Fourth, the dance, especially the choral movement, can be comprehended as an ornament which has been emphasized by several Hungarian artists who are involved in movement art: Álmos Jaschik (costume designer of Szentpál school) and Béla Balázs (Bierbauer Clarisse’s friend). Béla Balázs writes in Művészetfilozófiai töredékek (Art philosophical fragments): „The lines of ornaments are viewed as imprints of 6
movements, and I often stood in front of columns, arcs and stone roses of ancient buildings feeling that they are forms of secret dance of dead souls carved in stone.”
Methods of research
In the topic of Hungarian modern dance so far mostly summaries have been created. On the one hand, it is necessary to prepare the monographies of the „big” school founders’oeuvres as well as to reconstruct their works. At the same time the activities of smaller schools (Clarisse Bierbauer, Margit Riedl, Erzsébet Kármán, Ágnes Popper, Klára Ékes etc.) should also be explored. Only after these studies or parallel to them it would be available to complement the oeuvres of the involved artists. At present the studies are carried out, and a lot of information has been collected about the different schools, but because of our conception and limit of length the results of these studies cannot be detailed in the frames of this thesis. The thesis analyses the genre according to a complex system of criteria. On the one hand the phenomenon is viewed as the part of the Hungarian society, and on the other hand it isput into the international tendencies. It also could be called comparative dance history, the aim of which is to study the individual works as part of the process of dance history and not as isolated phenomena. In even broader sense they could be treated as artistic expressions which developed parallel to their art counterparts, although with some time lag. The thesis was written not only with the help of photographic materials and dance descriptions of the national archives but using the documents owned by a dozen of private people living in Hungary and abroad as well as own reports made with living or already deceased flow artists. The dance is a temporal and a spatial genre, and it is impossible to form an opinion on it based only on photographs. Thus when enough information was collected, or it was thought necessary, the dances were reconstructed or described briefly with the help of contemporary descriptions, photos and dance descriptions. The Hungarian and foreign modern dance was illustrated by some parts of films in several places. The Hungarian movies of modern dance have been collected for years; thus the collected films of private people and MaNDA have also been published to ensure that the described picture of modern dance would be based on actual observations. The foreign parallels have been compiled based on the period and the contemporary international studies and monographs. At the same time typescript preserved reports and studies of earlier Hungarian researchers of modern dance have also been used. 7
The main findings, results and structure of the thesis
The history of Hungarian modern dance was dealt with by the artists of modern dance first. In that period nearly every artist of modern dance formulated their creed, or more exactly their attitude to a particular topic. First of all Máriusz Rabinovszky and Valéria Dienes wrote scientific summaries and studies. After banning the modern dance since the 1970s the first publications connected to the modern dance were written by the former dance artists. E.g. Ödön Palasovszky published his reminiscences and Zsuzsa Merényi published the monograph of Olga Szentpál. Júlia Lenkei published the sources of Hungarian modern dance and carried out its systematization. Lívia Fuchs has also published several documents. At the beginning of writing two hypotheses were set up as follows: One of them is that the Hungarian modern dance schools worth investigating only together, even if later there would be monographs made on school history. The other hypothesis was that the individual performances themselves are saying very little now, therefore instead of chronological historiography, or parallel to it, it would be worth studying thematic or stylistic phenomena as well. Thus after the presentation of science history of modern dance and the periods of the five more significant dance schools, the thesis demonstrates some phenomena of Hungarian modern dance (neoclassical choreographies, gothic reminiscences, Christian choreographies etc.) parallel to some foreign examples. No effort was made to present all topics e.g. natural images, which were preferred by the Szentpál school. Motifs and stylistic phenomena characteristic to the contemporary fine art were started to examine as well. Our categorization is only partly identical with Júlia Lenkei’s booklet titled Modern Dance in Hungary. An outline of the history (in Hungarian), as Lenkei strived to demonstrate not only the grouping of thematic and motifs, but in her book the types of dances (solo dance, choral dance), the political conditions etc. were also demonstrated, while the motifs and stylistic phenomena were given less attention. The thesis is finished with the survival of Hungarian modern dance mainly abroad. The several decades’ long history of aesthetic gymnastics of Berczik is only briefed.
movement art the Art Nouveau, Futurism, Expressionism, Surrealism and folksy aspirations can also be observed. The examination of appearance of Hungarian modern dance in foreign countries showed that already since 1910 there have been lots of foreign performances of Hungarian modern dance, there have been many foreign courses mostly in Germany, thus the Hungarian modern dance must have been influenced by the foreign techniques, performances, and at the same time the Hungarian modern dance might have influenced the French, German, Czech or Austrian schools. The analyses of „smaller” schools, or oeuvres reveals that the studies only on the „significant” schools give a false picture, e.g. Ágnes Popper and her colleagues were the members of several German associations. The modern dance had its schools in every bigger town (Győr, Pécs, Szolnok etc.) and the Budapest schools also had performances in the country. The costume designs prepared by Róbert Berény for Erzsébet Kármán’s school and the costume designs prepared by Isolde Daig for Lisa Czobel’s performances could be identified only from the entire material, and the prefiguration of dance moves of paintings and sculptures can be examined scientifically only based on all this.
This structure has resulted in the fact that the choreographies occur as social phenomena that can be observed abroad as well. Every phenomenon can be fitted between certain time limits, which have their parallel in fine arts, too. In the short history of Hungarian 8
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Acknowledgements
Publications and exhibitions in the topic of movement art
The current research would not have been possible without basic research and summaries, heritage collections and reports of experts of the different disciplines e.g. Júlia Szabó, Erzsébet Vezér, Gedeon Dienes, Sarolta Kővágó, Zsuzsa Merényi, Lívia Fuchs and Júlia Lenkei. In addition, I would like to thank my supervisor László Beke for his versatile and comprehensive long-standing cooperation. Special thanks go to the Dance Science Working Committee of Hungarian Academy of Sciences for the support of my research in modern dance. Grateful thanks go to the live dance artists (Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Elza Brandeisz) and the descendants of dance artists who shared their knowledge with me and put the documents in their possession at my disposal.
Exhibitions
• 2012. június 28 – 2012. szeptember 9. „Mozdulat.” A magyar mozdulatművészet története és kapcsolatai 1902 és 1950 között, Iparművészeti Múzeum, curator. • 2013. november 7 – december 14. Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950), Párizs, Párizsi Magyar Intézet, curator. Book and journal editing
• Editing of catalogue of exhibition titled Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). (with Judit FALUDY) • Editing of movement art volume of Ars Hungarica No. 2014/1. (with László BEKE and Evelin PÁLL) • Mozdulat, magyar mozdulatművészet a korabeli társadalom és művészet tükrében. Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2013. (with László BEKE and András NÉMETH) • Editing of volume 2013/4 of periodical Enigma. (with Csilla MARKÓJA and István BARDOLY) Publications 2014
• VINCZE Gabriella: Egy kevéssé ismert Czóbel: Lisa Czobel (1906–1992) a magyar származású, német táncművésznő. Tánctudományi Tanulmányok, 2014. 20.000 characters (under publication) • VINCZE Gabriella: A Madzsar-iskola berlini kapcsolatai. Adalékok Kepes Éva pályájához. In. Eds. NÉMETH András and PIRKA Veronika: Továbbélő utópiák I–II. Budapest, Gondolat Kiadó, 2014. 56.000 characters (under publication) • VINCZE Gabriella: André Kertész (1894–1985) és a magyar mozdulatművészet – a magyar életreform-mozgalmaktól a Szentpál-iskoláig. Artmagazin, 2014/5. 26–33. • VINCZE Gabriella: Korb Flóra. Artmagazin, 2014/1. 50–55. • VINCZE Gabriella: Klasszicizáló tendenciák és gótikus reminiszcenciák a magyar mozdulatművészetben. Koreográfiák, elméletek és azok helye a korszak táncművészetében. Ars Hungarica, 2014/1. 19–43. • VINCZE Gabriella: Stricker (Zeisel) Éva (1906–2011). Az ipari formatervező, a képzőművész és a mozdulatművész. Ars Hungarica, 2014/1. 111–118. 10
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• VINCZE Gabriella: Észrevételek a Centre Pompidou Danser sa vie, Art et danse de 1900 à nos jours című kiállítása kapcsán. Ars Hungarica, 2014/1. 89–92. • VINCZE Gabriella: «Tout mouvement photographie l’homme interne d’un certain
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point de vue» École d’Alice Madzsar (née Alice Jászi, 1877–1935) kinésithérapeute et artiste du mouvement. In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE, Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 104–116. VINCZE Gabriella: Avoir du style = art. École de Sára Berczik (née Sára Perczel 1906–99). In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE, Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 194–200. VINCZE Gabriella: «La danse commence là où le mouvement de la vie réelle se termine » Olga Szentpál (née Olga Stricker, 1895–1968). In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE , Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 130–136. VINCZE Gabriella: «Sur le chemin de la santé et de la beauté». L’école de l’art du mouvement de Lili Kállay (née Lili Klein, 1900–1996). In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE, Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 170–176. VINCZE Gabriella: «La danse est la parole du corps humain», L’école de Valéria Dienes (née Valéria Geiger, 1879–1978) artiste de mouvement et philosophe de danse. In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE , Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 80–84. VINCZE Gabriella: Les périods de l’art du mouvement hongrois.In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE , Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 76–79. VINCZE Gabriella: Les antécédents de l’art du mouvement hongrois. In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE, Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 8–21. VINCZE Gabriella: Additions à l’époque parisienne des artistes du mouvement hongrois. In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE, Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 22–39.
• VINCZE Gabriella: Les œuvres de Bartók dans le ballet hongrois 1919–1949. Sur quelques premières. In. Eds. Gabriella VINCZE, Judit FALUDY: Mouvement, rythme, danse. Les débuts de la danse moderne en Hongrie (1902–1950). Budapest, Pannónia Nyomda, 2014. 54–67. 2013
• VINCZE Gabriella: Kelet a magyar mozdulatművészetben. In. Eds: BEKE László, NÉMETH András and VINCZE Gabriella: Mozdulat, magyar mozdulatművészet a korabeli társadalom és művészet tükrében. Budapest, Gondolat Kiadó, 2013. 123–141. • VINCZE Gabriella: A Lényegretörő színház felé vezető út. Megjegyzések a Madzsar Alice-féle mozdulatművészeti iskola oktatási rendszerében és táncművészetében bekövetkezett változásokhoz. In. Eds. BOLVÁRI-TAKÁCS Gábor: Kultúra-értékváltozás a táncművészetben, táncpedagógiában és a tánckutatásban. III. Nemzetközi Tánctudományi Konferencia tanulmánykötete. Budapest, Magyar Táncművészeti Főiskola, 2013. 228–237. • VINCZE Gabriella and SZIKRA Renáta: Mozdulat-művészet. Artmagazin, 11. évf., 2013/1. 28–33. • VINCZE Gabriella: Rodin-adaptációk az 1950 utáni táncművészetben. In. Eds. SZÉKELY Miklós and GAYLHOFFER-KOVÁCS Gábor: ALS ICH CAN, Tanulmányok Urbach Zsuzsa 80. születésnapjára. Budapest, Centrart, 2013. 154–165. • VINCZE Gabriella: Adalékok a magyar mozdulatművészek párizsi korszakához. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 19–31. • VINCZE Gabriella: A magyar mozdulatművészet előzményei. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 8–18. • VINCZE Gabriella: Bartók a magyar balett színpadon (1917–1949). Néhány premierről. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 44–48. • VINCZE Gabriella: „A tánc az embertest beszéde”. Dienes Valéria mozdulatművész és táncfilozófus iskolája. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 62–66. • VINCZE Gabriella: „A stílus–stílusosság = művészet”. Berczik Sára mozgásművészeti iskolája. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 104–112. • VINCZE Gabriella: A magyar mozdulatművészet korszakai. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 55–61. • VINCZE Gabriella: „Az egészség és szépség útján”, Kállay Lili mozgásművészeti iskolája. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 99–103. 13
• VINCZE Gabriella: „Ott kezdődik a tánc, ahol a reális élet mozgása véget ér”, Szentpál Olga mozdulatművész iskolája. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 92–98. • VINCZE Gabriella: „Minden mozgás valamilyen szempontból lefotografálja a belső embert”, Madzsar Alice gyógytornász és mozdulatművész iskolája. Enigma, 2013/4 (76.). 67–79. 2012
• VINCZE Gabriella and FENYVES Márk: Modern tánc a modern balettben, Eck Imre Az iszonyat balladája című koreográfiájának mozdulatművészeti párhuzamai. Jelenkor, 2012/6. • VINCZE Gabriella and FENYVES Márk: Modern tánc a modern balettben, Eck Imre Az iszonyat balladája című koreográfiájának mozdulatművészeti párhuzamai, 1961 (Pécsi Balett). In. Eds. BALASSA Zsófia, P. MÜLLER Péter, ROSNER Krisztina: A magyar színháztudomány kortárs irányai. Pécs, PTE Modern Irodalomtörténeti és Irodalomelméleti Tanszék, Kronosz Kiadó, 2012. 95–101. • VINCZE Gabriella: Harc a széthullás ellen. Az Orkeszikai Intézet 1944-es zárkörű háziversenyeiről. Tánctudományi Közlemények, 2012. IV/2. • VINCZE Gabriella: Képzőművészet a mozgás sugarában, Madzsar Alice és a képzőművészetek. In. Eds. ZALETNYIK Zita and REPISZKY Tamás: A gyógyító mozgás művésze, Madzsar Alice emlékének. Budapest, Semmelweis Kiadó, 2012. 185–196. 2011
• VINCZE Gabriella: Madzsar Alice: Bilincsek, 1930 (rekonstrukció). In. Ed. JÁKFALVI Magdolna: A 20. századi magyar színházi kánon alakulása. Budapest, Balassi Kiadó, Színház és Filmművészeti Egyetem, 2011. 57–66. • VINCZE Gabriella: Megjegyzések, észrevételek, hipotézisek az MTA Művészettörténeti Kutatóintézet mozdulatművészeti anyagai kapcsán. In. Eds. BOLVÁRI-TAKÁCS Gábor and FELFÖLDI László: Tradíció és megújulás kérdései a mai táncvilágban. Budapest, Nemzeti Táncszínház, 2011. 47–56 (with abstract in English).
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