GHDI logo


Wassily Kandinsky, "Dance Curves: On the Dances of Palucca" (1926)

Dancer and choreographer Gret Palucca (1902-1993) was a former student of Mary Wigman, the leading figure in German Expressionist dance. In 1925, Palucca opened her own dance studio in Dresden and developed close contacts with various Bauhaus instructors, many of whom greatly admired her dance style. Wassily Kandinsky’s four “analytical drawings,” which were based on photographs of Palucca by Charlotte Rudolph, illustrate how closely the dancer’s style coincided with the Bauhaus aesthetic. The drawings and photographs were published in the arts journal Das Kunstblatt in 1926. According to Kandinsky, Palucca’s art was characterized by “1. Simplicity of the whole form, and 2. being based on the large form.”

print version     return to image list previous image      next image

Wassily Kandinsky, "Dance Curves: On the Dances of Palucca" (1926)

From: Wassily Kandinsky, "Tanzkurven: Zu den Tänzen der Palucca," Das Kunstblatt, Potsdam, vol. 10, no. 3 (1926), pp. 117-21