Man and Mask

Oskar Schlemmer did not confine his activities at the Bauhaus to painting and teaching sculpture. He also wanted to put his ideas about ballet into practice, and in 1922 he did so in public for the first time. He planned to free the stage from the trappings of tradition in order to give expression to the 'pure idea.' The central theme of his work was the relation between humankind and space, and the mediator between these two was to be the dancer, stripped of his individual identity by the use of costumes and masks. This documentary film, made with the artistic advice of Oskar Schlemmer's widow, presents an historically faithful, precise reconstruction of some of his dances. More than any other film, it gives a sense of what Bauhaus teaching was really like, and is truly important to an understanding of the origins of contemporary dance.

Biographical details about Oskar Schlemmer