Bohner

Some choreographic works are not understood until they are seen from an art-historical perspective, when their significance shows. This is true of VA Wölfl and Neuer Tanz, say, and especially so of Gerhard Bohner. Alone among choreographers, he linked the study of movement with investigations into space, line, colour, abstraction and art-philosophical concepts such as the sublime, the spiritual and form. 

Gerhard Bohner, who died in 1992 in Berlin, was always mentioned in a context with Reinhild Hoffmann, Susanne Linke and Pina Bausch. He was the male protagonist of German dance theatre.

But parallel to co-developing this departure from classical ballet and conventional drama forms, in the 1980s, Bohner applied himself to exploring key aesthetic issues. His investigations began in 1974 with a reconstruction of Bauhaus dances, most notably Oskar Schlemmer’s “Triadic Ballet” in 1977 at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste. 

This was followed by “Bilder einer Ausstellung” in 1981 and the solo programmes “Schwarz weiß zeigen” (1983), “Abstrakte Tänze – Bauhaustänze“ (1986) and the trilogy “Im (Goldenen) Schnitt“ (1989). In his art, Gerhard Bohner was looking for a way to connect with the ...