Gerti in a pose from a character dance piece, mid 1920s.
Gerti: I love exploring the possibilities of the dance. One may take on so many different roles. There is a mystery and excitement in assuming a new persona. I particularly love being the strong woman who seems to save the world from dying of ennui as I deliver a round of fantastic turns and then plunge into quick heels and toes faster than the audience can follow. My calling is the dance and the dance keeps calling me to ever new experiences. I hope to go to Wigman to study at some later date and my friend Liesl keeps asking me to come to Paris. I will. I must. There is so much to learn and try. Papa seems better now but who can ever get over losing someone like Mutti? I hesitate to leave him and Karlsbad, but I know Mutti would want Magda and I to travel again and grow in the dance.
Magda: A gentle rising on toe, becomes a balance, a new way to feeling, a provision, a glimpse into the ephemeral depths of myself. The feeling is as if lightning is lashing my insides. I tremble with passion or is it nerves? But I give nothing away in my stance, instead I take a small breath and hold my pose. I inhale slowly in and out and am sustained. I float. I am as a statue.
Then a whisper of movement stirs in my arms as I circle them over my head. My limbs become a halo for my vision. With grace I lower my stance and glide forward, silently, across the floor, embracing the very air I move through. I am a breeze flowing lightly, beautifully, in motion, created by my own breath and muscle. I turn, feeling the gorgeousness of space, sweeping my vision into a swirl and whirl, so that I come to know that motion is my true state of being.
I am unravelling the mysteries of my body, searching for my inner truth in the creation of my movement.
Magda at the Hahn Karlsbad Dance School, mid 1920s.
Magda dancing with children from the Hanova Bombay Dance School, 1940s.
Magda: The dancing children inspire me. Their movement is so pure and created in the moment. They have no artifice or falseness about their gestures. Their movement springs out of their youthful enjoyment of the simplicity of running, jumping, skipping, turning, and stretching. In these children, I see movement that is fresh and irreproachable in its unadulterated forms. It gives one pause. A glimpse into an understanding that life may be fleeting but it is in these moments of exultation and motion that we affirm our aliveness. For children this is constant and occurring in steady regularity. As adults, we need to retain this youthful outlook, be more spontaneous and delighted by each and every move our bodies can make. Be at the ready, every day to rediscover our bodies as the precious gifts they are.
Hanova students pose at English Bay, Vancouver, 1968.
Gertrud: Magda and I found a wonderful penthouse apartment in the West End which borders on Stanley Park. The landscapes in the park and surrounding city are stunning and perfect backdrops for combining the dance with the natural configurations of the sea, rock, and forest. We are attentive to how the dancer may juxtapose so harmoniously with nature. The photographs are sensuous images that call to the viewer to experience the contrast of the human body set artfully against formations in the natural world. These visually and creative representations preserve moments of motion, freeze its beauty, so we may ponder the expressive essence of our bodies. In effect, we are enabled to see the body differently, no longer as pedestrian but something more which beckons us to rethink the body as only functional. We may now recognize the similarities of the body and the Earth, both possessing gentle and voluminous curves, continuous motion, sustained pulses and rhythms, and a solid but flowing core.