Bauhaus stage
The Bauhaus stage of the 1920ies was a legendary project of modern theatre. Founded in Weimar it became a legendary place for revolutionary experiments with body and space under direction of Oscar Schlemmer. In Dessau it even became architecture: The stage marks the centre of the Bauhaus building.
Since the 1970ies the Bauhaus stage got revived with dance, theatre, music and performance projects. Today it is once more a laboratory for experiments with performing arts used by actors, dancers and other artists. Its focus lies on the experimental staging of spaces.
A wide program livens this central place in the Bauhaus building with various events reflecting concepts of the historical stage as well as updating them in the context of today's theatrical discourses. Visitors of the Bauhaus experience the stage as a lively connection between the foundation's work, its history and its present.
Festival congress Imaginative Power II
Bauhaus Dessau, 13th to 15th October 2011
It epitomised the interdisciplinary and inspired artists, architects, dancers, musicians and performance artists equally: the Bauhaus stage. What came to pass in this theatre workshop between 1922 and 1929 is still undervalued today. In 2010 the first "Imaginative power" festival aimed to investigate the historic practice and reception of the Bauhaus stage. The sequel comes in 2011: A programme of lectures, film screenings and reading performances will explore the progressive stage work at the Bauhaus even further. Further information
Review: Imaginative Power I
Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2011
Prague, 16th to 26th June 2011
From 16th to 26th June 2011 the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation represents Germany on this year's Prague Quadrennial in the sections of Architecture and Education. The Bauhaus stage is presenting the project "play bauhaus – die bühne als raumapparat – the stage as spatial apparatus" – read more in the new play-bauhaus-blog. However, it is neither a presentation of a theatre operation, nor a single educational facility, but a principle: the commitment to elemental theatrical, choreographic and scenographic basic research, the constant necessity for radical questioning of theatrical resources. The presentations manifest the Bauhaus Theatre as a simultaneously historic and contemporary project; as an extraordinary theatre laboratory, in which the medium of the stage was and is explored as a spatial synthesis model, as an interface for different creative disciplines. Further information
Stage studio
The stage studio develops concepts for and realises own and co-productions, which take up aspects of the historic Bauhaus stage and update these in the context of contemporary discourses in dance and performance art. International dancers, actors and musicians and artists, architects, urban planners and designers are invited to collaborate in the productions. In this way, the stage studio becomes a unique laboratory, which works on the development of concepts and ideas pertaining to the theatrical transformation of space. These refer equally to the origins of the Modern movement and to the contemporary cultural context. Methods of performance and concepts of spatial interpretation and production are developed in terms of an "interdisciplinary spatial theatre". Current Projects and Retrospective
music at the bauhaus
Since 2006 the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation hosts Jazz concerts and other presentations of innovative sound artists on the Bauhaus stage in its "music at the bauhaus" series. Once again internationally known artists are guests on the legendary Bauhaus stage – as in the 20ies, when the Bauhaus offered an open space for experiments and examination. The series "music at the bauhaus" is funded by the Bauhaus Club. Autohaus Heise and the Suisse arts council are funding special events individually. Current events
Kurt Weill Festival at the Bauhaus
Every spring Dessau's Kurt Weill Centre arranges its yearly Kurt Weill Festival. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation provides a special ambience, where modern architecture meets contemporary music. Further information
