Gearing into Madness: Andrei Jerschik by Damián Cortés Alberti
In 1929, Andrei Jerschik (Vienna 1902 – Linz 1997) created the four-minute expressionist solo dance Mensch im Wahn (initially called Haus der Irren) to Sergei Rachmaninov’s Prélude in G minor, opus 23. The premiere took place at the Königsberg Opera House. In 1994 he rehearsed this solo with Harman Tromp, a version which Rose Breuss translated into Labanotation. The work with Damián Cortés Alberti was originally intended as a proof reading of the notation. As Damián can read Labanotation, the idea was born to learn the solo using only the notation and then to check this version for accuracy with Harmen Tromp.
Damián Cortés Alberti filters, shows and explains the processes of transfer and reproduction. His work aims to revalue the practice of notation in the artistic and research processes in dance today and make the creative potential of these processes visible.
(Text: Rose Breuss)
Introduction
What are the different methods that a dancer uses in order to learn and perform a choreography? Specifically, how do I understand and perform a dance solo created by someone else, for a body that is different from mine, and from a time period that is not my own? These questions guide my research, which aims to explore my approach to learning a modern dance piece. The goal is to uncover potential strategies and propose new methods for working on dances. This will help to reveal the complex aspects of the process of learning, rehearsing, and performing a dance piece, thereby freeing our discipline from outdated ways of understanding the dancer’s work.
The Movement Machine, in this context, is the crucial assembly of gears that makes this research possible. It documents the multimodal methodological process applied to the study of the dance piece Mensch im Wahn (Man in Delusion) a solo created in 1928 by Andrei Jerschik. This Movement Machine, with its four chapters, modes, or gears, is the backbone of this research. It includes: 1) Labanotation and Text-based Score, 2) Body-to-body transmission, 3) Motion Capture, and 4) A brief chapter that encompasses a pedagogical and artistic experience derived from the solo that exemplifies the artistic-pedagogical potential of revisiting the past from a contemporary informed perspective.
Before we proceed, it’s important to clarify my stance on two of the four methodologies used: writing and Labanotation. Despite the overshadowing of these forms by more fashionable methodologies, it’s crucial to recognize their potential in 21st-century dance practice. Understanding their influence on my artistic practice and their potential in the dance world is a key aspect of this research.
In this respect, we must acknowledge that the academic agreement to consider writing as a technology is long-standing. As an anchor point, I will consider Walter J. Ong’s maxim: „To understand what writing is, which means to understand it in relation to its past, to orality, one must honestly face the fact that it is a technology.“ (Ong 1986, 33). Starting from this idea and establishing my argument, I invite the reader to understand dance notation as an analogical technology of extended development and high complexity, similar to the writing of languages. This need for clarification raises the issues that dance notation has faced since the 1970s. Among these, the most prominent are the budgetary differences with projects that include new technologies, the lack of interest of dancers due to lack of knowledge and disinterest in recognizing its social relevance. Thus, Dance Notation, as a qualified technology for recording and processing movement in the artistic practices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, is at a significant disadvantage with the use of new technologies in contemporary dance.
My work aims to revalue the practice of notation in the artistic and research processes in dance today because, as Ong mentions, „Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form“ (Ong 1986, 24). For this, it is imperative to review notation from the perspective of considering it as a complex, flexible technology intertwining with social concepts and artistic practices.
1) Labanotation Score
Labanotation, a sophisticated system that conveys detailed information about movement, weight, space, time, and flow, is a adaptable tool with a wide spectrum of applications. Rudolf von Laban, a Hungarian choreographer and dance teacher, introduced his technique for documenting human movement on paper in the magazine Schrifttanz in Vienna in 1928. The method was created through a multi-year development process facilitated by the involvement of several experts in notation and artists. Labanotation is one of the most widely recognised and widely used methods for documenting human movements or dances on paper. Its versatility is evident in its applications, from preserving choreographic works to studying human movement in fields such as robotics, biomechanics, sports sciences, and design. This versatility inspires new possibilities and applications for the future.
For this research, I used a Labanotation score of the solo Mensch im Wahn, notated by Rose Breuss in 1998. Here is a short remark to the context and History of the notation in the words of Rose Breuss:
The dance was reconstructed – initiated by Andrea Amort – with the dancer Andrei Jerschik and Harmen Tromp in the 1990s and performed at the Vienna Festival and at the Posthof Linz under the direction of Esther Linley in 1995 and at the Odeon Vienna under the direction of Harmen Tromp in 2008.
The score was made possible by the Orpheus Trust, an association for the research and publication of displaced and forgotten art, which was founded in 1996 by Dr. Primavera Driessen Gruber. (Rose Breuss, excerpt of a unpublished script for Erasmus exchange classes with Folkwang University of the Arts 2023)
Another essential score that was used in tandem with the Labanotation was the script that Andrei Jerschik wrote to Harmen Tromp in 1994 thoroughly describing the plot of the solo. Both scores completed or expand each other in an dynamic dialectic interplay.
Mensch im Wahn, an extract of the first part of the original script by Andrei Jerschik (translated by Rose Breuss)
Paranoia step: A trotting along in the twilight state, as it were without backbone; the sneaky kicks tear him out of the twilight state, at the 3rd kick he is fully awake; As a sudden, instinctive reaction, he tries to frighten the enemy with threatening power gestures with simultaneous defensive gestures, to chase him away; it must seem almost ambush-like.
Paranoia step, repetition
The running represents the attempt to escape in a state of paranoia.
Paranoia step
Conclusion of the paranoia
This is followed by the raving madness:
This transition point, that is, the beginning of the raving fit must be very striking, a surprise. It is finally the only possible reaction to this agonizing being kicked. The raving attack has been triggered by a furious rage and a will to destroy and annihilate, and the one raging with rage jumps like a berserker into the attack position. The rampage begins.
Notational considerations – plot and labanotation
Labanotation is used to notate the step structure and the spatial-temporal structure. Movements of the upper body, arms and head result from the imagination of “delusions”. The gestural actions are set with spatial-temporal precision, e.g. pointing the finger (gesture of power), covering the eyes (despair). (Rose Breuss, 2023)
Basic information on Labanotation
To start we need a brief information on how the LN system works in order to understand the three steps method I use for decoding a LN score.
First step: Table Reading
In this video I explain how I address a new score, reflecting the process I went through when I first encounter the score of Mensch im Wahn.
Second step: Memory work/marking
Here we can see the second step of my method of learning a dance from a LN score. This procedure allowed me to memorise and embody the order of sequences with the music.
Third step: Spacing/staging
The third step I take of learning from the score is the placement of the movements on the scenic space. This procedure allows me to accurately organise space time and movement in a given scenic space.
2) Body-to-body Transmission
The most practised and explored method of learning dance is the body-to-body transmission. Dancers engage in this process daily and from the start of their education. The transfer of information is a combination of visual demonstrations and verbal commands/suggestions.
For this research, I do not pretend to delve deep into details about this methodology; I instead present short clips of my concrete encounter with maestro Harmen Tromp to get a glimpse of the complexity and richness of the process of studying a dance solo in a professional/artistic/research setting.
It’s important to note that the re-mediation of the event, which involves capturing the rehearsal on video and post-editing, introduces an additional layer of complexity. This process results in the loss of some information and the revelation of others, thereby influencing the overall learning process.
The body-to-body transmission allows the possibility of changing, omitting, or shifting movements stated in the notation. The interesting thing, from my point of view is, that this possibility hinders my agency over how I perform the solo. The decision of leaving out something or changing something is now shifted from the dancer to the person who observes the dance, generating a different power dynamic from that of working with the score.
Overlapping/overlaying
The overlap of temporalities is reflected in this video edition in order to visualise the process of acquiring nuances in the execution of particular sequences of the solo. Those nuances refer to timing, musicality, dynamics and movement details. The importance of the body-to-body transmission lies in the fact that by sharing space and time while dancing with maestro Harmen Tromp, my interpretation, understanding and physical outcome of the solo rendition is shifted from previous attempts. This difference emerges due to the intra-active (Barad, 2007) process of coexistence in space-time.
Picture-in-picture
The possibility of adding a picture within a picture is used in this case to exemplify the implementation of verbal directions that Maestro Harmen Tromp gave me during the rehearsal. As we see my aim is to achieve what Maestro Tromp named “no technic” by allowing my body to react to the impulses of the clearly set movements in a dis-orderly manner.
Three modes of addressing the same choreographic fragment. Although it seems self-evident, the process of rehearsing requires the repetition of a given sequence, each time with a different intention and strategy in order to gain insights for the final rendition of the section.
Trailer of rehearsal
In this video, I intended to portray the differentiated modes used in the rehearsal. The video edition also served as a method of reflecting on the event, which was very useful for my learning process.
3) Motion Capture
#The movement data was collected using marker-less motion capture technology. This was possible thanks to Prof. Stefan Greuter and the Deakin Motion Lab at Deakin University, Australia. Under the supervision of Julio Escudero, the choreography was captured using an array of 12 Captury cameras (https://captury.com) and the Captury live software. The movement data was collected and exported as .fbx and .csv files, that allows for further visualisation and manipulation of the recorded movement.
Motion Capture visualisation – Software features explanation FBX® Review software is a stand-alone tool that lets users view 3D models and animations across many platforms without using a 3D authoring tool.
Artistic and Pedagogical Spin-offs
The extensive and multimodal study process of this solo allows for a multifaceted, complex and all rounded vision of the materials that constitute it. Moreover, each methodology applied to study the choreography, namely: Labanotation and textual score, body-to-body transmission, motion capture, and Artistic/pedagogical spin-offs, add different elements, clues, or indications that inform the materialisation of the choreography in a continuum of movement performed by the dancer.
This fragmented set of elements that are agglutinated and ordered for the execution of Mensch im Wahn’s choreography, however, can be approached from a different perspective. The artistic work I have been developing for years with the company Cie. Of(f) Verticality accounts for this process of appropriation, transfer, reflection and diffraction of dance repertoires. This work methodology enables a transversal dialogue with the practices of dancers beyond the stylistic, technical and temporal characteristics of specific choreographies, making possible the creation of particular and situated contemporary choreographies, modes of collaboration and choreographic findings. From this standpoint, I started to use the materials from Mensch im Wahn for the new creations of the Cie. Of(f) Verticality (https://www.cieoffverticality.com/).
Knowledge, the development of new skills, and the somatic experience of new routines enable a space where forces, energies, floor patterns, directions, gestures, dynamics, tensions, narrative elements, intentions, affects, and imaginations generate a pool of materials available for new compositions in different setups. This means that the new choreographic works in which I have been involved since the realization of this project are indebted to this project and, at the same time, feedback to my own rendition of the solo. The goal is not to reconstruct, reference, or transform Mensch im Wahn but to expand my own body archive in order to broaden my artistic capacity.
The scope of this project is not limited to artistic or research work. Its pedagogical potential was tested and proven in the framework of the Erasmus exchange classes given at the Skopje/Shtip Dance Academy at Goce Delcev University by Rose Breuss and Damián Cortés Alberti.
During these classes, students of the bachelor and master programs in contemporary dance were exposed to a variety of strategies. These strategies were designed to help them approach the solo Mensch im Wahn, learn an important piece of the modern repertoire, and adopt a new and dynamic methodological approach to the reconstruction and notation of dance.
During the meeting, the students were introduced to the Labanotation material, the textual material, and a fragment of the choreography, emphasising the praxeological character of this type of approach.
The experimental character of our proposal allowed outstanding choreographic and improvisation results from the students, configuring a dynamic, multi-focal, specific and innovative learning space.
The project will also serve as a basis for the Dance Studies, Notation and Reconstruction class in the Winter semester 2024-2025 at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz Bachelor program, taught by Damián Cortés Alberti.
Damián Cortés Alberti
Damián Cortés Alberti, born in Argentina, studied dance at the Universidad Nacional del Arte (UNA), the dance school Arte XXI, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In 2019, he obtained a Master of Arts in Dance Education from the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz. Damián is currently in the final stage of his doctoral thesis at the Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria.
From 2005 to 2007, he was a member of the Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martín in Buenos Aires, under the direction of Mauricio Wainrot. After moving to Europe in 2008, he developed an intense career as a dancer with Art Transit Dansa in Barcelona under the direction of María Rovira, the ensemble of the Staatstheater Darmstadt in Germany, and later the Landestheater Linz in Austria, both under the direction of Mei Hong Lin. Since 2016, Damián has been a member of Cie Of(f) Verticality under the direction of Rose Breuss.
Currently, Damián teaches at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität, serves as a board member of Red Sapata Kunst Kultur und Tanzitiative, co-produces the A!KO Dance Festival, and conducts freelance work internationally.
Bibliography:
Aibar, Eduard. (2022): Imaginación tecnológica e ideología de la innovación. En: Garcés, Marina (coord.): Ecología de la imaginación. Artnodes, no. 29. UOC. [Fecha de consulta: 28/05/2024]. https://doi.org/10.7238/d.v0i29.393017
Barad, Karen. 2007. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press.
Breuss, Rose (2023): Mad Figures (Unpublished. Thanks to Rose Breuss for the permission to quote from her unpublished paper).
Franko, Mark (2011): Writing for the Body: Notation, Reconstruction, and Reinvention in Dance. In: Common Knowledge 17.2 (2011). pp 321-334.
Guest, Ann Hutchinson (2005): Labanotation: The System of Analyzing and Recording Movement. London: Routledge.
Guest, Ann Hutchinson (2014): Choreo-Graphics: A Comparison of Dance Notation Systems from the Fifteenth Century to the Present. London: Routledge.
Ong, Walter. (1986): Writing Is a Technology that Restructures Thought. En: Baumann, Gerd (ed.): The Written Word, Literacy in Transition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Websites:
Autodesk. “FBX Review”. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.autodesk.com/products/fbx/fbx-review
Rose Breuss. “Dance Company Cie. Of(f) Verticality”. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://www.cieoffverticality.com/
Captury. “Motion Capture Redefined: Go Markerless” Accessed August 11, 2024. https://captury.com/