"Adolphe Appia, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Hellerau. Part one: 'Music Made Visible"', New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 1;2, May, 1985, 154-164.

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Appia, Jaques-Dalcroze, and Hellerau, Part One: ‘MusicMade Visible’

Richard C. Beacham

New Theatre Quarterly / Volume 1 / Issue 02 / May 1985, pp 154 - 164DOI: 10.1017/S0266464X00001524, Published online: 15 January 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0266464X00001524

How to cite this article:Richard C. Beacham (1985). Appia, Jaques-Dalcroze, and Hellerau, Part One: ‘Music Made Visible’.New Theatre Quarterly, 1, pp 154-164 doi:10.1017/S0266464X00001524

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Richard C. Beacham

Appia, Jaques-Dalcroze, and Hellerau,Part One: 'Music Made Visible'While Appia's name is dutifully linked in our theatre histories with the full realization ofthe revolution in stage lighting wrought by electricity, the nature of his broaderscenographic philosophy has remained little understood, and his own writings are notreadily accessible in English. Still less have English-speaking theatre people given dueattention to the work of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, creator of the system ofeurhythmies - and virtually nothing has previously been written about the uniquecollaboration between these two innovators, which began in 1906, and eventuallyflourished in the unlikely setting of a German 'garden city', dedicated to thehumanization of modern industrial practices- Hellerau, or 'the bright meadow'. Here,Richard Beacham, who has published a study of Appia's earlier work in Opera Quarterly(Autumn 1 983), describes how the two men came to meet and to plan for thepossibilities offered by the projected Hellerau festivals: in a subsequent article, he willassess the extent and nature of the work they achieved there.

IN THE last decade of the nineteenth century,the Swiss designer Adolphe Appia, workingvirtually in isolation, laid out both thetheoretical and practical foundations for afundamental and permanent change in theatricalart. Through his extensive commentary, detailedscenarios, and unprecedented designs - all in-spired by his analysis of Wagerian opera — Appiafirst provided a complete and devastatingcritique of the disastrous state of theatrepractice, and then, with quite astonishingforesight, suggested the solutions which, in timeand frequently at the hands of others, wouldre-establish it upon an entirely different basis.

Appia stipulated that setting and performancemust express a carefully unified and meticulouslycoordinated effect, which would faithfullyconvey the intentions and ideas of the originalcreative artist. He called for three-dimensionalelements, a careful evocation of psychologicalnuance, 'living light', symbolic colouring, and adynamic, sculptured space, with all theseexpressive elements harmoniously correlated tothe music and dramatic action.

He demanded that the actor be set free fromthe mockery of flat, painted settings in order topractice a purified craft within a supportive andresponsive scenic space. The audience, benefitingin turn from such reform, should no longer be

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thought of as mere passive spectators, for Appiabelieved that experiments along the lines hesuggested could more fully involve them in thetheatrical act in order to experience directly avital and uniquely effective new form of art.

Appia's audacious ideas were compelling andhis goals admirable, but his means for realizingthem were woefully inadequate. Bayreuth wasthe obvious venue for the reforms over whichhe'd laboured so long and with such passionatededication, but his designs and scenarios hadbeen ridiculed and contemptuously rejected byWagner's widow, Cosima, who was implacablyhostile to anything deviating from the practicelaid down by the Master.1 Thus, at a crucialmoment, Appia encountered the innate con-servatism and inertia of the conventionaltheatre. With cruel irony, Bayreuth itself, oncerevolutionary and in the vanguard of reform,had become part of the theatrical establishment.

Appia lacked powerful or influential friends,as well as the ability to organize and direct thetalent and energy of other potentially alliedartists. An inspired but extraordinarily reclusivegenius, intensely shy and temperamentallyunsuited to direct collaboration, his situationwas made still more desperate by the sheermagnitude and thoroughness of the reforms heenvisaged and prophesied. To destroy one

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theatre and create another in its place from theground up was what Appia had accomplishedwith such magnificent results, imaginatively, as awonderfully detailed theory; to carry out sucha project in practical terms was more than oneman - certainly more than Appia - could do.

Appia Encounters Dalcroze

In an unpublished essay of 1905, Appia wrote'I become ever more isolated, ever morealienated from the theatre, and from artists in allfields...my work and my ideas are virtuallyunknown'.2 Help came the following year, whenAppia first encountered Emile Jaques-Dalcrozeand the system of rhythmic exercises which hedevised and taught - eurhythmies.

Dalcroze had developed his theories and theexercises contingent upon them over severalyears, whilst working as an instructor in musicat Geneva, where he taught harmony. Hediscovered in his pupils difficulties 'which resultfrom insufficient coordination between themental picture of a movement and itsperformance by the body'.3 Gradually hecomposed first 'gesture songs', which usedphysical movement to accompany short piecesof music, and later an entire set of exercisesdesigned to create simultaneously greatermuscular and nervous coordination, and akeener sensitivity to musical rhythm and tempo.

To do this, it was necessary to enhance notonly his pupils' perception of musical nuance,but their awareness of the responsive movementof the body in space as well. In effect, he taughtthem to translate musical composition directlyinto space through the reactive medium of theirown bodies. Bodily movement and mentalperception had to be integrated and harmonizedto respond to music, and the exercises trainedstudents until this occurred almost auto-matically.

In May 1906 Appia attended one ofDalcroze's sessions in Geneva, and wasastounded. 'My impressions were complex andsurprising. At first I found myself moved totears, remembering how long I had waited. Butsoon I sensed the awakening of a new forceutterly unknown to me! I was no longer in theaudience, I was on the stage with the per-formers. '4

Appia perceived at once that eurhythmiesoffered the key to a problem stated but notsolved in his earlier work. Wagner himself hadcalled for the regeneration of music byemphasizing what he termed the basis 'of allpure human art; the plastic bodily movementexpressed through musical rhythm'.5 Buildingupon this notion, Appia had asserted theoreticallythat, in effect, music was the measure of allthings; that it alone must motivate the actor, andthrough his movements determine the nature ofthe scenic environment. But he had notsuggested (nor yet determined) any formalmeans, method, or mechanism whereby thismusically motivated movement was to becontrolled and measured in space.

As he noted later, 'In the course ofcomposing Musik und die Inscenierung I felt thenecessity for the actor to be trained in rhythmicgymnastics. The method... was revealed to meby Dalcroze in 1906. Without changing myorientation, eurhythmies freed me from tooinflexible a tradition, and, in particular, from thedecorative romanticism of Wagner From thatday on, I saw clearly the route my developmentwas to take. The discovery of basic principles forthe tnise en scene could only be a point ofdeparture; eurhythmies determined my futureprogress. '*

Eurhythmies thus helped Appia to extend theapplication of his theories for reform beyondWagner's operas into other works of musicdrama:' I became aware how far my theory haddetached itself from Wagner's work in order totreat the subject in all its fullness and generalscope'.7 He had sensed, albeit as yet imprecisely,that eurhythmies could provide the solution tothe problem he faced earlier: how to system-atically physicalize the temporal; how totransfer musical time and consequent bodilymovement into three-dimensional space. Appiawrote at once to Dalcroze introducing himselfand announcing that 'the externalization ofmusic (which is to say, its rehabilitation) is anidea which I have desired for many yearsNothing can save music from sumptuousdecadence except externalization. It mustexpand in space, with all the salutary limitationswhich that must have for it. On the other hand,the life of the body tends toward anarchy andtherefore towards grossness. It is music which

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can liberate it by imposing its discipline uponit'.8

First Fruits of Contact

Dalcroze recalled many years later this firstcontact with Appia — ' a long letter in which... inthe very clearest fashion he identified the futurecourse of my efforts'.9 In response to this letter,Dalcroze invited Appia to his home, after whichhe in turn wrote to Appia proposing thefriendship and collaboration which in fact cameto pass: 'I am happy to know you and hopewith all my heart that we may see each otheroften I am again fresh and well, and workwith zest, supported by your sympathy andcomplete understanding for my work... thefuture belongs to us, while we live, and we havethe duty to explore it'.10

Appia enrolled in a summer course ineurhythmies, and as his first contributionpersuaded Dalcroze to vary the flat area in whichthe exercises were performed through theaddition of some stairs and platforms. By addinga vertical element to the students' work, Appiaincreased their awareness both of space and oftheir own mass, and encouraged them to createdynamic three-dimensional exercises in place ofmere moving tableaux. Gradually, over the nextseveral years, during which Dalcroze and heworked closely together experimenting andenlarging their vision of eurhythmies, Appiabegan to realize the full potential of the systemfor fundamental theatrical reform. Eurhythmies,he wrote,

accords a natural harmony to the body, which will

benefit the purity and flexibility of acting and will

give it the sensitivity necessary for any style. The

training through rhythmic gymnastics will make the

actor especially sensitive to dimension and distance

in space, corresponding to the infinite variety of

sound. Involuntarily he will bring these to life on the

stage and will be bewildered by the injustice done to

him, three-dimensional and living, among dead

paintings on vertical canvases. He will try to claim

his rights and, realizing the reasons, he will

participate in the dramatic and scenic reform. But the

author, the poet, and the musician too will stress the

importance of the body, which has been neglected for

centuries. The point of contact between body and

mind, which alone can create harmony, has becomelost: eurhythmies will try to find it again. This isits great significance for the theatre Theawakeningof rhythm in ourselves, in our own flesh, is thedeath-knell of a great part of our contemporary art,particularly the scenic art.11

Having recognized some of the implications ofDalcroze's work, both for individual performanceand for furthering general reform of dramatic art,Appia for a time was perplexed over exactlyhow to translate these into actual production.His first attempts to compose designs appropriateas settings for eurhythmic exercises weredisappointing. He tried simplifying the lines ofhis earlier Wagnerian scenes, but, in the absenceof any score, found it difficult to conceiveabstractly of suitable settings.

Then he realized that what was essential wasthe very quality of three-dimensionality itself -an element which, although demanded in hisearlier settings, was not always unequivocallymanifested in the drawings themselves. Now hesaw the need for sets which established andemphasized their mass and volume unambig-uously for the viewer, because only within thecontext of such an arrangement could the actor'sbody itself be seen to occupy and require spacerhythmically - that is, to be engaged in activeand living movement which could be perceivedand measured in terms of the static objectsaround it. 'Whenever the pencil touched paperit evoked the naked body, the naked limbs... thequality of the space rendered the presence of thebody indispensable.'12

Putting Theory into Practice

In the spring of 1909 Appia created abouttwenty designs which he termed 'RhythmicSpaces', and submitted them to Dalcroze, whoreceived them with great excitement. Appiaperceived that the way to bring these settingsto life was by contrasting them with the humanbody. Their rigidity, sharp lines and angles, andimmobility, when confronted by the softness,.subtlety, and movement of the body, would, byopposition, take on a kind of borrowed life. Thespectator himself could imaginatively sense thephysical quality of the designs as the body ofthe performer moved amongst them, and,

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Two of the 'rhythmic designs' created by Appia in 1909.

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moreover, because of the qualities of architecturalharmony and proportion with which Appiaimbued them, they could, though lacking anyelement of time or movement themselves,provide visually as the eye surveyed them, astrong sense of rhythm.

These designs, moreover, suggested far morethan merely a series of settings for eurhythmicexercises: they could help clarify the relationshipbetween music, time, space, and movement, andultimately revolutionize stage performance anddesign. Appia and Dalcroze worked togetherwith growing conviction to develop spaceswhich successfully embodied this relationship.

Together they laid plans for mimes andoperas to be directed by Dalcroze and designedby Appia. In 1907 Dalcroze asked Appia tocreate settings for his opera Les Jumeaux deBergame. Delighted with the results he tried,unsuccessfully, to arrange a production inBrussels, while expressing profound sympathyfor the frustration which Appia felt in not beingable to put his ideas into practice: 'How terriblyyou must suffer in seeing theatre continue as itis, when you possess the means to make itsomething else: living, real, and beautiful Iwant to sustain your ideas and propagatethem'.13

In 1909 they collaborated extensively onplans for a production of Prometheus. Appiaprepared a scenario and series of designs forwhich Dalcroze expressed immense admiration.He hoped to present a portion of Appia's workas part of a summer fete to be held in Genevausing the foremost dancers of the day, includingIsadora Duncan, Maud Allan, Ruth St. Denis,and Olga Desmond.

Once again, however, nothing came of theseplans, although through their collaborationAppia grew ever more deeply involved in thetheory and creation of eurhythmic stagedesigns. He announced that henceforth it wasnecessary to take ' the human body resolutely asa point of departure for both music andsettings - and this means no less than a changein the very conception of the drama, includingall the consequences that will follow'.14

Appia now hoped and could foresee that'eurhythmies will in its normal developmentcreate for itself a setting that inevitablyemanates from the three-dimensional form of

the human body and its movements, idealizedin music', and that eurhythmies had thus 'takena positive step toward a complete reform of ourscenic and dramatic conceptions'."

Finally, in 1910, Dalcroze and Appia had adecisive opportunity to make practical progresstowards such basic reform. In October of theprevious year, Dalcroze had given a demonstra-tion in Dresden with some of the studentstrained by him in eurhythmies. It was attendedby a 32-year-old, well-to-do gentleman namedWolf Dohrn, who had studied economics andhad been active for a time in liberal politics,becoming the General Secretary of the GermanWerkbund, which he had helped to found in thesummer of 1908.

The Werkbund was an enlightened organiza-tion devoted to the development and promotionof the applied arts in German light industry, andDohrn worked as a tireless supporter of itsprojects, lecturing widely, serving on planningcommittees, and acting generally as its spokes-man and publicist. He was a man of verysubstantial gifts - an enormous capacity forenthusiasm and hard work, a talent forcommunicating his ideas and firing others withthem, and, most significantly, a deeply feltidealism and consequent espousal of theWerkbund's goals, high amongst which wasenabling workers to overcome the threat ofdehumanization in modern industry, and toregain a sense of satisfaction and pride in theirwork and its products.

The Hopes for Hellerau

Together with his colleague in the Werkbund,Karl Schmidt, Dohrn had established in theoutskirts of Dresden a small factory dedicatedto this ideal. Around it, in an idyllic hilltop siteon the heath at the edge of a pine forest, theyfounded a small settlement modelled on theEnglish concept of the 'garden city' - the firstsuch town in Germany.

The project was pursued as a noble socialexperiment. Dohrn, Schmidt, and their support-ers hoped that within a harmonious naturalsurrounding a new Utopian community could beestablished and nurtured, based on principles ofsocial equality, liberal and universal education,and the revival of unalienated art and labour.

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The settlement took its name from its site:'Hellerau', the 'bright meadow'.

By the autumn of 1909, when Dohmencountered Dalcroze, the factory and first 24homes had been built, with a population of 2,000projected for the summer of 1911, to riseultimately to a maximum of 12,000. Theconstruction and arrangement of Hellerau wasscrupulously overseen by a commission, whichapproved every building and generally safe-guarded conditions — maintaining, for example,a ratio of one to five between developed andopen land to ensure that Hellerau's inhabitantswould be free from the squalid and crampedconditions prevalent in the industrial quarters ofmost cities, including neighbouring Dresden.

The community had become a zealousmission for Dohrn, who was determined, asDalcroze remarked later, that 'it was not enoughto build nice houses with pretty gardens... butcrucial above all to imbue the children ofHellerau with an intellectual and aestheticculture'.16

For Dohrn, the discovery of eurhythmies wasa revelation. He seized upon it at once,convinced that, through it, Hellerau couldbecome 'the future centre for a spiritual andphysical regeneration, out of which a broadsocial renewal would follow'.17 The establish-ment of eurhythmies as the defining andmotivating spirit of the Hellerau experimentbecame Dohrn's primary goal, 'and from thatmoment on he devoted to this idea all hisstrength, extraordinary personality, confidentwill, and great perseverance'.18

Barely a month after first meeting Dalcroze,Dohrn invited him to found an institute atHellerau to become the primary site for thepractice, further investigation, and propagationof eurhythmies. He offered to set up such aninstitute, and construct it exactly according toDalcroze's specifications. Dalcroze in turnsuggested that Appia be directly involved fromthe start in all aspects of planning relating to theproposed institute and its building, and shouldjoin its faculty and board of directors.

In March 1910, Dalcroze wrote an exuberantand optimistic letter to Appia, announcing thatgenerous finance for the project was available,and rejoicing that their mutual dream ofestablishing a genuinely popular aesthetic

in JH

One of the small workers' cottages at Helleraudesigned by Tessenow in 1910.

enterprise seemed about to be fulfilled. This new,non-elitist activity would be created andsustained by its broad appeal, and woulddirectly reflect and respond to society's needsand aspirations. He concluded, 'take heart, mydear collaborator.. .for our efforts and plans arealmost realized'.19

Two weeks later Dalcroze met Dohrn again,and reported the same day to Appia that he hadshown some of his designs to Dohrn, whoreceived them enthusiastically and, moreover,seemed in perfect accord with Appia's advancedideas and plans: 'He thinks of you as alreadybeing at Hellerau'.20 On 24 April 1910 thescheme was formally approved by the DresdenCity government, which agreed to donate thenecessary land and underwrite the costs ofconstruction.

Throughout the summer plans and consulta-tions continued among Appia, Dalcroze, andDohrn. The 34-year-old architect HeinrichTessenow was engaged to execute the designand building, and a Russian painter, Alexandervon Salzmann, was brought in to overseearrangements for lighting, which, given Appia'sdetailed but largely untested theories, promisedto be complex and unprecedented.

The Full Potential of Eurhythmies

It was Appia's gift of a far-reaching andvisionary imagination which made this collabo-ration so productive. Originally Dalcroze con-ceived of eurhythmies almost exclusively as abasis for musical training and consequent

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reform. Only gradually, under Appia's influence,did he come to recognize and accept that whathad begun as training in musical sensitivity hadvast implications for theatrical reform, an areawhich, initially, had held little interest forDalcroze. He continued to insist that 'eurhyth-mies is not an art form - 1 want to shout thatfrom the rooftops-but a path towards art',21

whilst gratefully accepting the help provided byAppia along that path.

Dalcroze resisted thinking of eurhythmieseither as a technical method on the one hand,or as a spectacle on the other. It was meant toenable the student to react to and expresswhatever music he applied it to, without lapsinginto the purely abstract or improvised creationof pleasing visual effects. At the same time,Dalcroze hoped and expected that its practi-tioners would move beyond a totally mechanicalrelationship to the music, to use it so that itsexpression through the body became a deeplypersonal and liberating experience.

Motivated in part to recreate the ancientGreek Orchesis — to express inner emotionthrough the union of music and movement indance — his work was one more expression ofa Greek-inspired movement for artistic reformwhich had long been evident and influential inEuropean culture. Indeed, many years earlier,Friedrich Nietzsche had seen the potential forsuch reform in Wagner's music itself, noting thatmusic demanded 'her equal sister, gymnastics,for her necessary embodiment in the real worldof the visible', and that the new type of dancethus formulated would act as 'judge over thewhole deceitful contemporary world of showand appearance'.22

Dalcroze had a remarkable talent both foreffective pedagogical work and for expressingand publicizing his methods enthusiastically andarticulately to others. But he lacked autonomousinspiration and imagination: he needed theoreti-cal and aesthetic support and structure for hiswork, as well as the identification and definitionof ultimate goals.

Appia, who was extremely shy, introverted,and quite incapable himself of publicly presentinghis ideas, provided Dalcroze with the creativeanalysis, the ability to formulate new objectives,and, above all, the inspired vision of thepossibilities for a new scenic art which were

essential if eurhythmies were ever to becomemore than a species of refined gymnastics. Justwhen it was threatened with stagnation as musicreform, Appia gave it new relevance andpurpose by recognizing its potential for thestage.

It was Appia who helped Dalcroze to glimpsethe ultimate implications of eurhythmies: that ifthe necessary connections could be made, itprovided not simply a means toward greatersensitivity to music, or even, at best, to aGreek-inspired reintegration between body andmind through dance, however worthy such anachievement might be. It was, Appia becamefirmly convinced, potentially an independentcreation, born out of elements of music, dance,and drama, but capable of maturing finally intoa wholly new and wondrously expressive artform.

Gradually the conception and generation ofthis new art became the guiding principle andchief goal of the Hellerau Institute. AlthoughAppia was extremely modest about his ownrole, and always generous in the praise andcredit he gave to Dalcroze and others, in thecourse of the Institute's work Appia clearlybecame the motivating, somewhat mysteriousbut always benevolent genius of the place.Reticent, sometimes remote, and rarely seen, hedetermined and guided its development.

Dalcroze was cautious, and tended to cling tohis original pedagogical principles and goals. Ofrather conservative taste aesthetically, hedisplayed a certain Calvinistic scepticism towardthe theatre in particular. Initially he wasdisinclined to present theatrical activity at all,still less to undertake any radical reform ofexisting stage practice.

'I certainly have no intention of establishinga theatre at Hellerau', he wrote, 'I am no friendof the theatre, this playing, which — usually withno conviction — is served up to blase spec-tators'.23 But Appia's ideas and enthusiasm,the force of his convictions, and the prophetic,inspired quality of the written expression hegave them proved irresistible in the end.

Planning the Performance Space

At the beginning of October 1910, Dalcrozeand his family moved to Dresden, where his

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e t u ' t . ( 1 1 : i

_ J SaaJ J u Saal I —

Ground plan for Hellerau Hall, including main hall, two smaller rooms for work and exercises, cloakroom,changing rooms, technical areas, etc.

Institute opened in temporary quarters on 17October. During the first year thirteen courseswere run, including two for student actors andone especially designed for members of theDresden Royal Opera. In addition a course wasoffered at Hellerau itself, both for adultinhabitants and to children in its 'Volkschule'.The normal course comprised eight subjects:solfeggio, improvisation, anatomy, choral music,plastique anitnee, dance, gymnastics, and eurhyth-mies. In all, over 500 students participated.

Dalcroze constantly sought advice fromAppia (who remained in Switzerland), particularly

in regard to using the ' practicables' — rostra,platforms, stairs, podia, and the like - whichmade up his designs for rhythmic spaces. Inaddition, Appia advised about the crucial role oflighting and the influence it should have uponthe expressive quality of the musically co-ordinated exercises.

On the Institute's temporary site at Dresdenthere was little scope for creating the lightingdepicted in Appia's designs, which Dalcroze hadtherefore to encourage his students to imagine,although Salzmann provided some rudimentaryeffects. As the year passed, much of the

161NTQ 1



Above: a further 'rhythmic design', conceived by Appia in 1909-10 for Schiller's Le Plongeur. Compare thestairway actually built for the hallway off the main entrance to the Institute, bottom of opposite page. Oppositepage, top: the main entrance to the Institute. 1912 (note the Ying-Yang symbol on the pediment).

correspondence between Appia and Dalcrozewas increasingly concerned with the subject, inregard not only to work already in progress atthe Institute but also to the elaborate experimen-tal apparatus envisaged for use in the Hall atHellerau, for which plans were now welladvanced.

Appia had for some time conceived a buildingwhich would help to abolish what he increasinglyconsidered to be the unacceptable distinctionbetween spectator and performer. For this totake place, he needed an entirely new theatricalarchitecture, and at Hellerau he achieved it forthe first time. He designed a large open hall, 50metres in length, 16 metres wide, and 12 metreshigh, which would enclose both performers andaudience without any barrier or obstaclebetween them. The orchestra and its light wasalso hidden from view.

Thus he abolished the proscenium arch andraised stage, using a completely open perform-ance area for the first time since the Renaissance -a critical step which had been anticipated by hisearlier theory, and which was constantlyreinforced and substantiated by everything hedid or wrote afterwards. For Appia it was notmerely a practical step, but a deeply philosophicaland social gesture as well, since it implied awholly different attitude towards the function ofart and the way in which men respond to it.

Indeed, it predicated a new definition of artitself. Henceforth, everything which Appiawrote was based upon a fundamental andirreversible change in attitude. Art was not tobe contemplated passively, but engaged inactively. Theatre was not an illusion which oneobserved, but a real event which one experienced.The attitude and habit of being an 'eternal

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spectator'24 was to be transformed by everyavailable artistic means of expression into a newand dynamic perception of art as immanentwithin the life and experience of everyone.

The hall at Hellerau, which had seating for560 spectators, and space for about 250performers, was constructed exactly accordingto Appia's plans. In addition to the large hall,the building contained classrooms, changingand shower rooms, and areas for small-scaleexercises, comprising what one critic character-ized as 'an amalgamation of Temple andPalaestra'. The front of the building 'was in theform of a temple facade, formed by four massiverectangular pillars, supporting the high roof. Tothe left and right were side wings runningparallel to the main hall. To the rear was anenclosed court, laid out with arcades, whereopen-air exercises took place.'25

The building was approached through a largeopen square, which both set if off properly andcomplemented its great size. As one drew near,the' eye' of Hellerau gazed down: the Ying-Yangsymbol placed in the centre of the building'spediment.

The simplicity, purity, and harmonious-proportions of the structure impressed virtuallyevery visitor, and greatly pleased Dalcroze.

1636-2



Above all, he admired the performance spacewithin, whose 'collaboration' he considered'absolutely essential for the art which I hope torenew; a collaboration which deprives that artof neither freedom nor originality; a space whichindeed lends it new stimulus without absolutelydetermining it, or making it dependant uponitself."

On 22 April 1911, in the presence of inviteddignitaries, the residents of Hellerau, andstudents representing fourteen nations, thecornerstone was laid, the first blows being struckby the youngest of the students, a five-year-oldboy. In his speech marking the occasion, WolfDohrn hoped that the Institute might replace'the unproductive intellectualism as well as thejoyless athletic training' of the age with a newsystem dedicated to the 'spiritual developmentof the body, or if you prefer, the physicalizationof mental and spiritual exercises'.

He went on to suggest, prophetically, thatafter a few years at Hellerau 'we shall witnesshow its people will present celebrations andfestivals, for themselves and others, of a typewhich no other place can offer, because nowhereelse will there exist a population so widely andequally educated, and invigorated by such asense of community'.27 It had been decided thatin the following summer of 1912 the Institutewould hold the first of annual festspielsdisplaying examples of its work to the generalpublic.

A few weeks after the cornerstone was laid,Dalcroze wrote to Appia upon the completionof the first year's courses: 'The year has beenexcellent for our art. We have made undeniableprogress, following our path precisely, and witha single gesture have lifted the veil from theUnknown; an Unknown which we love, andhope to overcome.'

Dalcroze felt that, after years of preparationand of painstaking collaboration with Appia,they stood on the verge of extraordinarydiscoveries. He was filled with optimism andideas - particularly that of 'working out withyou our first programme of festivals. It isentirely in my head: I know, understand, and seeeverything which we'll present to the public'

He looked forward to working through thewinter with Appia, to 'make the buds of ourjoint nurture blossom in the sun. Be assured, my

friend, that you are intimately associated withthis work... and that the festivals of Helleraushall be signed with your name beside that ofyour faithful and affectionate, E. J. Dalcroze.'28

'The birth of the modern stage' was at hand.29

Notes and References1. For a full account of Appia's earlier work, see Richard

C. Beacham, 'Adolphe Appia and the Staging of WagnerianOpera', Opera Quarterly, Autumn 1983.

2. Appia, 'Introduction to my Personal Notes', unpublishedessay of 1905, trans. Walther Volbach, Appia Collection, BeineckeLibrary, Yale University, typescript p. 35.

3. Gemot Giertz, Kultus Ohne Goffer (Munich, 1975), p. 12.4. Appia, 'Theatrical Experiences and Personal Investigations',

unpublished essay of about 1924, trans., Walther Volbach, AppiaCollection, Beinecke Library, Yale University, typescript p. 383.

5. Wagner, 'The Art Form of the Future', in GesammelteSchriften und Dichtungen (Leipzig, 1907), p. 90.

6. Appia, 'Theatrical Experiences', op. cit., p. i7&.7. Ibid., p. 376.8. Appia to Dalcroze in a letter of May 1906, quoted by

Edmond Stadler, 'Adolphe Appia et Emile Jaques-Dalcroze', inFrank A. Martin, ed., Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (Neuchatel, 1965),p. 417-18.

9. Quoted by Edmund Stadler, 'Adolphe Appia und EmileJaques-Dalcroze', Maske und Kothurn, X (1964), p. 662.

10. Ibid., p. 664-5.11. Appia, 'Eurhythmies and the Theatre', 1911, trans. Walther

Volbach, the Appia Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University,typescript p. 71.

12. Appia, 'Theatrical Experiences', op. cit., p. 379.13. Dalcroze to Appia, 1907, quoted in Stadler, 'Adolphe

Appia et Emile Jaques-Dalcroze', p. 423.14. Appia, 'Eurhythmies and the Theatre', p. 71.15. Ibid., p. 75.16. Dalcroze, in a tribute at Dohrn's funeral, 11 Feb. 1914,

printed in E. Feudel, ed.. In Memoriam Hellerau (Freiburg imBreisgau, 1960), p. 32.

17. Giertz, Kultus Ohne Cotter, p. 119.18. Karl Scheffler in a tribute at Dohrn's funeral. In Memoriam

Hellerau, p. 49.

19. Dalcroze to Appia in a letter dated 28 Mar. 1910, quotedin Stadler, 'Adolphe Appia et Emile Jacques-Dalcroze', p. 429.

20. Ibid., 11 April 1910, p. 430.21. Dalcroze in an undated letter to Appia, in the Appia

Collection, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

22. Friedrich Nietzsche, 'Richard Wagner in Bayreuth', Werke,II (Leipzig, 1922), p. 376.

23. Quoted in Giertz, Kultus Ohne Gotter, p. 142.24. Appia, 'Eurhythmies and the Theatre', p. 72.25. Giertz, Kultus Ohm Gotter, p. 123.26. Karl Storck, £. Jaques-Dalcroze (Stuttgart, 1912), p. 88.27. Quoted in Giertz, Kultus Ohne Gotter, p. 131.28. Dalcroze to Appia, 3 June 1911, quoted in Stadler,

'Adolphe Appia et Emile Jaques-Dalcroze', p. 439.29. A proposition to be defended in a subsequent article. The

work at Hellerau has been thus characterized by, for example,Nicholas Hern, 'Expressionism', in Ronald Hayman, ed.. TheGerman Theatre (London, 1975), p. 116.

Unless otherwise indicated, translations from German are the author'sown; those from French are by Mr N. Monro-Davies.

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"Adolphe Appia, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Hellerau. Part one: 'Music Made Visible"', New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 1;2, May, 1985, 154-164.

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