In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

DANCING 67
Karl Gustav Vollmiiller. The entry in Kessler's diary referring to this
occasion shows an oscillation similar to Reinhardt's: "Baker danced with
extreme grotesqueness and purity of style, like an Egyptian or an archaic
figure that performs acrobatics without ever losing its style. The dancers
of Salamo and Tutankhamen must have danced this way. She does this
for hours, apparently without getting tired, always finding new forms,
as if in a game, like a playful child. Her body does not get warm; rather,
her skin maintains its fresh, cool dryness. A charming creature, but
almost completely unerotic" (Kessler, 455). [see Mummies] It remains
unclear what exactly Kessler and Reinhardt see Baker expressing. The
signified of which they "read" her body as a signifier is something
vaguely archaic, something authentic, something more real perhaps than
the reality of the contemporary world. At the same time, however,
Kessler describes Baker's dancing as a pure surface phenomenon, consisting
of endless varieties of form. This makes it into the movement of a
body that has no more erotic appeal than the body of a child, a body
whose skin remains cool and impenetrable. [see Gomina]
Or could this view simply be a reaction on the part of Kessler's
offended masculinity? He is shocked to see the nude Baker tightly embracing
a young woman in a tuxedo: "Between Reinhardt, Vollmiiller,
and myself lay Baker and Landshoff, wrapped around each other like a
pair of beautiful young lovers" (Kessler, 456). [see Male = Female (Gender
Trouble)] Since there is no easy way out of his confusion, Kessler
goes to see Baker's show at the Nelson Theater the following week. But
the only certainty he can find lies in the feeling that she stands for
something that is stronger than his own culture. This something, he
writes in his diary, is both "ultraprimitive and ultramodern": "Went
again to the Negro revue at the Nelson in the evening (Josephine Baker).
They are somewhere between the jungle and the skyscraper. The same is
true of her music, jazz, in its color and rhythm. It is ultra primitive and
ultramodern. Their tension generates their forceful style; the same is true
of the Russians. By comparison, our own culture is tame-without inner
tension and therefore without style, like a limp bow string" (458, February
17). [see Roof Gardens, Authenticity = Artificiality (Life)]
At their very first meeting with Baker, Kessler, Reinhardt, and
Vollmiiller form the project of writing a ballet for her, "taken half from
jazz, half from oriental music, perhaps from Richard Strauss" (Kessler,
456). [see Jazz] The script they end up writing is hopelessly trivial. Baker