GESAMTKUNSTWERK

         

My interest in the theory of Gesamtkunstwerk, or the total work of art, began early in my sophomore year, when I was introduced to the idea in a music history class.  I connected to this concept immediately, as it was something that I had been thinking about in my own work as a choreographer, but had never had the wherewithal to articulate or look into to see that it had actually been codified in the early 1800’s.  Reading of Wagner’s exercise of the theory in his great operas, I felt for the first time as though I were part of a lineage – a product of the artists before me, and a cog in the great wheel of future artistry.  

 

Fascinated by this idea, I read more about the many manifestations of the total work of art, and found a glaring omission in the lineage thus far.  While poetry, music, and theater dominated the total artwork ideal, dance was rarely mentioned, and then usually as a tired addendum. What troubled me about this is that the focus of this research seemed to be on power and drama, but the potential for power and drama in dance was rarely spoken of.  Instead, most writers on the subject mentioned dance as an additional element that could enhance the power and drama of music or story.  In the words of Moses Mendelssohn, a total work of art must always maintain a single dominant form, so as to avoid confusion (Shaw-Miller 20). I wondered if I could achieve something closer to Wagner’s pure version of Gesamtkunstwerk if I set out to create a “dance drama,” and enhanced it with the addition of music, props, video, and lighting technique.