Artist: 
Andrea Geyer (born 1971 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany; lives and works in New York City, USA).

Materials:
Three-channel HD video installation, 17 min.

Description:
“For Truly Spun Never, Geyer expands her recent interest in Modernism through an investigation of the origins of modern dance in Europe from the 1910s to the 1930s. Given the rise of National Socialism in Germany, the birthplace of Ausdruckstanz (Expressive Dance), Truly Spun Never unpacks the difficult relationships between culture and ideology, between expression and ethics, between a body and politics. Ausdruckstanz, became in Nazi Germany ‘German dance’ and the predominant dance form even when other modern forms of art had been categorized: degenerate. From 1933 to 1936 Rudolf von Laban, notable as one of the pioneers of modern dance in Europe, controlled dance throughout Germany as part of Joseph Goebble’s ministry of propaganda. Even when financed by the propaganda ministry and after removing all ‘non-Arian’ dancers from stage and dance schools, Laban as well as other leading choreographers and dancers of the time insisted that dance should lay beyond the grasp of politics.

“Geyer’s Truly Spun Never portrays the interactions between a critic and six dancers training different forms of spins. The critic oscillates between a reflection on dance as a form, its potentials and shortcomings and contemplative readings of poems by Paul Celan, who functions as a contemporary witness to 1930s Europe. Geyer’s script is based on her signature methodology of working with found materials and original writings of the time period, in this case writings of the key players such as Mary Wigman, Rudolf von Laban, Fritz Böhm, Joseph Goebbles, and Frederica Derra de Moroda. Through these multilayered interactions of movement and language, Truly Spun Never maps the terrain in which cultural expression gets infiltrated by ideological violence and poses the question of an immanent response to the historical figures of modern dance but also through their legacy to her contemporary audience.”
—”Andrea Geyer: Truly Spun Never,” Parque Galería, 2016.

“Geyer’s evocative piece looks into the semantic labyrinth between culture and ideology as well as the relations between bodies and politics, fluid and nonetheless significant for identity. The viewer is left with questions about a particular moment in history, and the fate of its actors, through an elegant exercise in memory and art.”
—Claudia Arozqueta, “Andrea Geyer’s ‘Truly Spun Never’,” review of Andrea Geyer, Parque Galería, Mexico City, Art Agenda, March 2, 2016.