Die mechanische Bauhaus Bühne ("The Mechanical Bauhaus Stage")

Das mechanische Ballett ("The Mechanical Ballet")

Die mechanische Exzentrik ("The Mechanical Eccentricity")

"Die mechanische Bauhausbuehne" is the title of two stage pieces which were created at the Bauhaus in Weimar in the 20's, both based on the same concept , the mechanisation of the stage event as a theatrical subject matter. The first piece came from former Bauhaus student Kurt Schmidt and is called "Das mechanische Ballett". The second piece was written by the former Bauhaus master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and is titled "Die mechanische Exzentrik".

While "Das mechanische Ballett" ran its premiere on the 17th of August 1923 on the occasion of "Bauhaus Week" at the StateTheater Jena, with the Kurt Schmidt choreography and music by Hans-Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Moholy-Nagy's "Die mechanische Exzentrik" remained a utopic and theoretical theater project. Schmidt's work concerns itself with the layering of twodimentional "spaces" with the means of moving abstract images. Vaguely reminiscent of humans, lifesize, colorful, geometric dance figures are controlled from the backside by hidden dancers, so that there is always one of the abstract images relating to a particular tableau running along throughout the choreography.

Moholy-Nagy's stage work includes film, the threedimentional stage and several stage layers as independently moving objects, grates, curtains etc. At the end of this piece appears a human dancer in a mechanical "event", as a living example of the concept of the nascent integration of the human "biomechanic".Attached to the partition of "Die mechanische Exzentrik" is a 1921/22 sketch to a Laszlo Moholy-Nagy film: "Dynamik der Grosstadt"("Dynamic of the Big City"), in form of the rear projection which had been provided specifically as an integral part of the story line.

The performance, actually the conversion of "Die mechanische Exzentrik" remained therefore under others a mere fantasy, because in those days the implementation of such a project was not thinkable, even for technical reasons alone. The two pieces, as well as the transcription of the "Dynamik der Grosstadt" fotos, were thereby not reconstructively created, but created new on the grounds of the preset aesthetic frame. "Das mechanische Ballett" saw the emergence in a concrete manner of figurine sketches, true to the originals by Kurt Schmidt and Georg Teltscher. The choreography was re-created by Joerg Lensing and the music by Hanno Spelsberg in 1987.

"Die mechanische Exzentrik" in an original staging by Joerg Lensing, as well as the video "Dynamik der Grosstadt" in a first realization by Josef Schiefer and a second one by Sascha Hardt, are the Theater der Klaenge's own creations in the year 1987. The double program was shown with huge success from 1987 to 1992 in a total of 18 cities , 62 performances for 15000 spectators inland as well as abroad.

After 12 years , "Das mechanische Ballett" is still an integral part of the repertory of Theater der Klaenge, in the double program "Tanz am Bauhaus" ("Dance at the Bauhaus") which exists since 1994, and from which "Die mechanische Bauhausbuehne" has separated itself. The video conversion "Dynamik der Grosstadt" by Sascha Hardt was set to music with a soundtrack specifically composed for it by Joerg Lensing, and is since shown autonomously at film festivals.