Foreword

The Bauhaus’ fundamental philosophy relied on the combination of the education of the arts that were considered as ‘elite’ studies, with crafts –something done for the first time in the world and conceived as a new field of study, called design, as we know it today. The school was based around a holistic approach to the creative disciplines. Gropius wanted the school’s architecture to reflect these values. when he designed the building ‘Dessau’ to house the new school. The objective was to facilitate the creation of a Gesamtkunstwerk or a total work of art. Unified vision for the arts that made no distraction between form and function. Although the Bauhaus allowed students to be indivually expressive, the Bauhaus was still very much focused on the prodcution of work.

At the Bauhaus in Dessau, workshops were quite popular however Gropius wanted to close the theatre workshop due to financial reasons. Nonetheless, a proposal was reached and the teathre workshop continued on to be one of the most popular and influencial workshops at the Bauhaus thanks to Oskar Schlemmer.

Oskar Schlemmer, a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer, was hired as ‘Master of Form’ at the Bauhaus theatre workshop. Whilst holding his position, Schlemmer produced his most famous work ’Triadisches Ballet’ in which he played with the movement of human bodies and replaced them with geometricak shapes, using the design basics that originated from the Bauhaus, circle, square and triangle along with the three primary colours.

Schlemmer only decided to explore these basic elements within the space of a few years with dances such as the Form dance, Gesture dance, Space dance, Stick dance, Scenary dance and Hoop dance, together with the Module Play and Box Promenade.

Schlemmer also saw this as an opportunity to develop theatre play based on the fundamental principles and philosophy of the Bauhaus.