Abstract

Dancers of Germany

What is probably the only truly national new dance exists today in Germany. It is national because though there are various conflicting ideas among the leaders, the basic dance forms are characteristic, and can be recognized by the outsider as of German origin. It is new both actually and chronologically, because its technique differs fundamentally from the ballet, on which every national dance except folk dancing has previously been based, and because it has sprung into being since the war. To say that it is national is by no means to say that it is folk dancing. It is not spontaneously generated out of group accord; it has been created out of the minds of the few. But enthusiasm for and discussion about the dance run high in all towns of any size in Germany.