The project documentation shows Liška and Scott during the latest reconstruction with the Bavarian State Ballet II. The young dancers’ expectations of the project are also given here.
Gerhard Bohner’s costume and choreographic reconstruction of Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett (The Triadic Ballet), produced in 1977 as a commission by the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts), was one of the most successful productions in recent dance history and can be seen as a model artistic reconstruction process. In 2014, the Academy of Arts initiated a reconstruction of Bohner’s piece.
Twenty years after Bohner’s death and 70 years after Schlemmer’s death, Ivan Liška and Colleen Scott – both of whom had been soloists in 85 performances of Bohner’s version of The Triadic Ballet – reconstructed this intelligent, humorous experiment with the Bayerisches Staatsballett II (today: Bayerisches Juniorballett München). The young dancers of the Junior Company experienced dealing with tradition, material and form.
The film recording shows the recording of the performance from 28 June 2014 at the Academy of Arts Berlin.
Choreography – Gerhard Bohner (1977)
Music – Hans-Joachim Hespos (Recorded music)
Costume reconstruction and new production – Ulrike Dietrich
Reconstruction and new production – 2014
Rehearsal direction – Colleen Scott and Ivan Liška
In the interview, Liška and Scott remember Bohner and their work on the 1977 production of The Triadic Ballet.
IVAN LIŠKA
After completing his dance training at the Prague Conservatory, his first performance took place in Prague in 1964 and he danced at the Prague National Theatre. He left Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1969. He was a dancer at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from 1969 – 1974, at the Bavarian State Opera from 1974 – 1977 and at the Hamburg State Opera from 1977 – 1998 where he danced as a soloist for John Neumeier for more than 20 years. In 1977, he worked with Gerhard Bohner on the reconstruction of Oskar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett and danced in more than 80 international guest performances of this production. He was appointed director of the Bavarian City Ballet on 1 September 1998.
COLEEN SCOTT
Born in Durban, South Africa, she completed her dance training with Eileen Keegan and Vera Volkova, as well as at the Royal Ballet School in London.
Her first professional appointment was with the PACT Ballet Company in Johannesburg, followed by the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein under the direction of Erich Walter. She joined in 1967 and became a soloist three years later. From 1977 to the end of 1988, she was a first soloist at the Hamburg Ballet under John Neumeier. In 1977, she worked with Gerhard Bohner on the reconstruction of Oscar Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett and danced in more than 80 international guest performances of this production. She has been ballet master at the Bavarian State Ballet since 1996/97.
Nele Hertling and Dirk Scheper explain as contemporary witnesses how the partnership between Bohner and the Academy of Arts came about, and they reflect on the dance-historical context in which the 1997 reconstruction emerged.
Nele Hertling
1953–1958: German language and literature and theatre studies in the philosophy department at Humboldt University, Berlin, followed by freelance work for radio and theatre.
1962, after a one-year stay in London: secretary of the Academy of the Arts in Music and Performing Arts, senate secretary since 1974.
1987: director of the Werkstatt Berlin to develop the programme for Berlin’s period as the European City of Culture in 1988.
1989: foundation of the Hebel Theater, director until 2003.
Director of the Berlin Artists Programme of the DAAD from 2003–2006.
Since 1998: member of the Academy of Arts, vice-president from 2006–2015.
Member of numerous bodies and networks, including the Europa eine Seele geben (A Soul for Europe) initiative, the Tanzplan board of trustees, the FU Berlin board of trustees, the German-French Cultural Council and the advisory board of the Einstein Foundation.
Dirk Scheper
Born in Berlin in 1938, the son of Hinnerk Scheper (1897–1957), a Bauhaus master for wall painting, and the Bauhaus painter Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp (1901–1976).
Theatre studies and German language and literature at the FU Berlin and Vienna University.
1970: doctorate with Oskar Schlemmer Das Triadische Ballett und die Bauhausbühne (The Triadic Ballet and the Bauhaus Stage), an updated version of which appeared as a book in 1988. Numerous publications and lectures on this theme since.
1963: initially an exhibition assistant, then from 1970 to 2003 secretary of the performing arts department at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, during which time he organised exhibitions and guest performance series and was involved in dance and theatre productions at the Academy, and on juries in Berlin.
President of the Bauhaus Archive since 1969.
Nele Hertling and Dirk Scheper were production directors of the 1977 Academy of Arts production of The Triadic Ballet: Nele Hertling for music and Dirk Scheper for costumes, choreography and reconstruction.
Interview with Schlemmers granddaughter Janine.
Experiment und Bewahrung. Rekonstruktion im Tanz (Experiment and Preservation. Reconstruction in Dance) – the programme from 24/6/2014 at the Akademie der Künste
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