In July last year, Gerhard Bohner, one of the most representative dancers and choreographers of West German tanztheatre, passed away at the age of 56. Trained with Mary Wigman and Tatjana Gsovsky, he had danced at the Nationaltheater in Mannheim and had been a soloist at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. His first choreographic rehearsals, dating back to the 1960s, were presented at the Berlin Academy of Arts, a favourite place for Bohner and those who wished to experiment outside the established theatres. In the course of his life he directed the ballet in Darmstadt ('72/'75) and Bremen ('78/'81), alternating this activity with that of an independent choreographer.
'Silvia frustriert' (second prize at the International Choreography Competition in Cologne in '69), 'Die Folterungen der Beatrice Cenci' ('71), 'Machen=machtlos' ('75), the re-mounting of Oskar Schlemmer's 'Ballet Triadico' ('77) and 'Zwei Giraffen tanzen Tango' ('80) are some of his best-known works. Academic dance and tanztheater, social denunciation and realistic style, investigations into the abstract and, from the Bremen period onwards, openness to the everyday: Bohner had the makings of a great experimenter. Further proof of this is the solo activity of the last decade.
As the scholar Susanne Schlicher (author of "L'avventura del Tanz Theater", published in Italy by Costa & Nolan) rightly emphasises, Bohner was, alongside Susanne Linke, Reinhild Hoffmann and Arila Siegert (a pupil of Palucca, almost unknown in Italy) among the most decisive figures in the rebirth of German solo dance in the 1980s. From '83 to '89 he signed five superb full-length solos: 'Schwarz Weiss Zeigen', 'Abstrakte Tänze/Bauhaustänze' and the trilogy 'Im goldenen Schitt I - II - III'. Fundamentally abstract, yet open to emotion, his solo pieces will remain in time a shining example of a rigorous and personal research into the relationship between body and space.
"Dialog mit G.B.", the work presented in Rovereto by Susanne Linke and Urs Dietrich is a tribute to the late artist.Susanne Linke is well known in Italy. Many will remember her dancing the famous solo "Im Bade wannen" in 1980 or reinterpreting "Affectos Humanos", the cycle of solos created by Dore Hoyer (the heroine of solo dance in the 1920s), or performing alongside Urs Dietrich (dancer and choreographer trained at the Folkwang-Tanzstudio in Essen) in "Affekte". This year she brought her latest group piece 'Ruhr-Ort' to Ferrara, a masculine piece about the working-class condition, a successful counter-altar to the famous 'Frauenballett' of 1981.
Linke, like Bohner, has Mary Wigman among her teachers, but her career blossomed at the Folkwanghochschule in Essen. From '70 to '73, she danced at the Folkwang-Tanzstudio in Essen, then directed by Pina Bausch, at which time she began choreographing. 'Puppe' from '75 won the special prize of the International Choreography Competition in Cologne. From '75 to '85, he directed the Folkwang-Tanzstudio. After leaving it, he started to create full-length solo pieces (the prize is entitled 'Schritte verfolgen'), initiating a creative phase that can be artistically likened to Bohner's path.
'Dialog mit G.B.' premiered at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin in February. The two soloists and authors, Dietrich and Linke, dialogue with Bohner through movement, citing the dance of the late artist in their own personal style. A few overhangs and axes build simple geometries on stage with which to relate: a starting point for an original revisiting of the analyses of body and space, in which Bohner was a master.
