CROSSING THE BORDERS OF GERMAN AND AMERICAN MODERNISM: EXILE AND TRANSNATIONALISM IN THE DANCE WORKS OF VALESKA GERT, LOTTE GOSLAR, AND POLA NIRENSKA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Karen A. Mozingo, M.A., M.F.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Lesley Ferris, Advisor Dr. Sheila Marion Dr. Joy Reilly ________________________ Advisor Theatre Graduate Program Copyright by Karen A. Mozingo 2008 ABSTRACT “Crossing the Borders of German and American Modernism: Exile and Transnationalism in the Dance Works of Valeska Gert, Lotte Goslar, and Pola Nirenska,” focuses on three German dancers who fled into American exile as a result of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Valeska Gert’s exile cabarets created a multiracial and transsexual space in which her own exile and artistic identity could take shape. Lotte Goslar used clowning and fairy tales to subvert conventional images of women in dance and theatre. Pola Nirenska used dance to renarrate her history and connect her to the larger community of Holocaust survivors. Though a handful of established dancers in German dance history, like Mary Wigman or Gret Palucca, have received the attention of scholars since World War II, the careers of many exiled dancers have not been studied. Scholars have studied the contributions of some of the major women in American modern dance—Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey—but their careers do not reveal the full history of women in American modern dance. Both American and German dance scholarship has developed within the boundaries of a constricted idea of national and artistic identities, resulting in the omission of artistic influences that flowed in both directions over the Atlantic. Gert, Goslar, and Nirenska’s artistic strategies situated them at a unique juncture between several polarities within the modern dance community: dance versus theatre, ii German versus American modernism, national identity versus transnational identity, content-based choreography versus design-based choreography, improvisational techniques versus codified techniques, and popular versus concert. All three women pushed the boundaries of American and German definitions of dance and subverted the nationalist representations of race and gender that were integral to both dance traditions. My study is a social and cultural history which integrates perspectives from multiple theoretical disciplines including feminist autobiographical theory, cultural theory, theatre studies, and dance analysis. Through archival research, interviews, and critical analysis, I examine the choreographic works, writings, photographs, and videos that document their artistic lives in exile and reveal a major—but as yet undiscovered—aspect of modernist art and its international traits. iii For AnnaSofia, so that she may know all things are possible. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very thankful for my advisor, Lesley Ferris, and my committee members Sheila Marion and Joy Reilly for their encouragement and mentorship throughout my graduate studies and the dissertation process. I have been blessed with their time and energy during difficult years in their own lives, and their dedication in the midst of significant life changes is gratefully acknowledged. I would like to thank Tom Postlewait, Hedwig Müller, Susan Manning, Penny Farfan, and Nina Berman for their belief in my project and their generous support of my fellowship applications, which made the archival research for this dissertation possible. Special thanks go out to Alexander Stephan, whose support and inspiration fueled the early stages of my research. The research librarians in several archives were generous in their support of my work and their help with navigating the archival collections. I thank Charles Perrier, from the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, Dance Division; Elizabeth Aldrich, from the Library of Congress Dance Division; Frank-Manuel Peter, from the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln; Stephan Dörschel, the Akademie der Kunst in Berlin; and Hedwig Müller, from the Tanzwissenschaftliche Sammlung at the Universität Köln. I am very grateful for the warmth, openness, and hospitality of the many dancers and friends of Pola Nirenska and Lotte Goslar, who helped me bring their stories to life: v Rima Faber, George Jackson, Liz Lerman, Jan Tievsky, Naima Prevots, Laura Schandelmeier, Lance Westergard, and Sharon Wyrrick. Many generous foundations and grants supported this dissertation: The Ohio State University Presidential Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Historical Institute, The Ohio State University Alumnae Grant for Graduate Research, and the Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Grant. Finally, I am forever grateful to my family and friends, whose gifts of love, encouragement, time, space, food, and good humor helped me bring this project to fruition: Andréa Severson, AnnaSofia Grace Severson, Pat and Glen Severson, Hedwig Müller and Barbara Malásek, Melanie House, Juliet Carey, Greta Pike, and Stephanie Kosto. I am also thankful for the support of Freya, Amanda, Michelle, Redscot, Mat, Rosamunde, and countless others from my writing group, who offered their friendship, wisdom, and energy throughout this process. vi VITA August 31, 1970 Born—Wilson, North Carolina 1991 A.B., Women’s Studies, Mount Holyoke College 1996 M.A. Theatre Arts, Case Western Reserve University 1999 M.F.A. Dance/Choreography, University of North Carolina at Greensboro 1994-1996 Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Theatre and Dance, Case Western Reserve University 1996-1999 Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Dance, University of North Carolina at Greensboro 2003-2007 Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University 2007-2008 Presidential Fellow, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Mozingo, Karen. “The Haunting of Bluebeard— While Listening to a Recording of Béla Bartók’s Opera ‘Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.’” Dance Research Journal (v. 37, no. 1), 2005: 94-106. Mozingo, Karen. “Lesbian Lacunae: Invisible Spaces in Dance Education.” Journal of Dance Education (v. 5, no. 2), 2005: 58-63. Mozingo, Karen. “Fractured Images: Montage and Gender in Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater,” Society of Dance History Scholars Annual Conference Proceedings, Barnard College, July 1997: 165-172. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Theatre vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication.......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments................................................................................................................v Vita.................................................................................................................................... vii Chapters: Introduction: Women, Modernism, and Exile .....................................................................1 1. “A Live Girl”: Performing the Queer Space of Exile in Valeska Gert’s Cabaret ...................................................................................................................37 2. “Her Finger Defiantly Raised”: Fairy Tales and Clowning in the Work of Lotte Goslar...........................................................................................................79 3. Choreographing Absence: Memories of the Holocaust in the Work of Pola Nirenska.......................................................................................................113 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................142 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................149 viii INTRODUCTION Modernism, Women, and Exile I decided to write a “Collage of My Life,” a collection of fractured pieces . I wrote the manuscript three times, with four carbon copies. I thought, it is too short. I wrote it again, 80 pages with three carbon copies. Still it seemed too short. Then I wrote 120 pages with five copies. I forgot to number the pages . the manuscript fell from my desk, the pages slid onto the rug, and other pages became mixed up in the hundreds of pages of the manuscript. I couldn’t find the connections anymore. I had to write everything again . I want to remain. (Gert, 15) Dancer and actress, Valeska Gert (1892-1978), wrote this passage during her post-exile years in her cabaret, Ziegenstall1, on the German island of Sylt. Her life had been uprooted multiple times as a result of World War II, and her words make her struggle for permanence and presence during and after exile painfully clear. She raises several themes common to the autobiographical narratives of women in exile: the desire to create a record of one’s history and life, the determined attempts to begin life anew, the rebellious struggle to define the significance and length of one’s life and work, and the ability to create connections where continuity has been destroyed. Gert’s autobiographies 1 and dances provided a sense of continuity, permanence, and identity preservation during a period of extreme upheaval and disconnection. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, many people, including dance artists like