After Jochen Schmidt saw the Repertory Dance Theatre perform in Vienna in 1992, dancing works of American modern dance pioneers, he became a man with a mission - to bring the company to north Germany, to dance works of Doris Humphrey.
As director of the Nordrhein-Westfalen Tanz Festival, Schmidt assembles talent from all over the world, suitable to the theme chosen for each biennial festival. This year's theme, "100 Years of Modern Dance - from Isadora to Pina," offered the ideal slot for RDT's peerless historic expertise. Schmidt saw the company again when it danced in Munich, and even came to Utah to make his final connection.Schmidt is well-positioned to find the great dance companies of the world. As dance critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German newspaper, he covers dance far and wide - not only all over Germany, but internationally, even to Asia and Australia.
"Back in 1982, the cultural ministry of Westfalen state found themselves with a half million marks for some major project," he said. "They asked cultural experts what they might do. I developed an idea for a dance festival, with a different theme each time. They said, good, why don't you do it? Who, me? I asked. But I did it!
"The first festival was in 1984 with the theme `To New York and Back.' We had a half-dozen German companies, and from the United States, the Limon Company and Twyla Tharp. In 1986 we worked around `Shiva and Terpischore,' combining neoclassical Western dance with that of India, and bringing in the Eliot Feld Ballet and the Ballet Rambert.
In 1988 the theme was `Modern Dance, a World Language,' highlighting the Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham companies, and from Taiwan, Lin Hwai-min, as well as the Cloud Gate Company, which is also the name of the oldest Chinese dance. In 1990 the festival featured companies from the Far East - Leningrad, Vilna, East Germany, Hungary; from Cuba a black company, and from the United States, mime artist Lotte Goslar and Garth Fagan's company, among others. 1992 saw a festival of black dance, featuring the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and a tap dance company from New York, two Caribbean companies and seven from Africa.
Recently published was Schmidt's book "Tanztheatre in Deutschland," the result of 28 years watching German dance. "It took every spare minute for three years," said the author, who has previously written a history of crime and mystery fiction, and a book about choreographer Hans van Manen.
Dance theater is a specialized field, as its hybrid name indicates, and its chief present-day exponent is Pina Bausch. Schmidt also mentioned four other leading figures - Johann Kresnick, Susanne Linke, Gerhard Bohner and Rein-hild Hoffmann.
Dance theater emerged prominently from the political movement of 1968. Bohner and Kresnick defected into this field from classical ballet. Spiritual father of the style is Kurt Jooss, who returned to Germany in 1949, after World War II. "Pina danced with his company," Schmidt said.
As for German dance in general, there are 100 companies - 50 in East Germany and 50 in West Germany - working within the German theater system, with full-time totally salaried dancers.
Of these, the big ballet companies are in Berlin, with three companies; Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dusseldorf-Duisburg, and Frankfurt. He considers Dusseldorf-Duisburg the best, thanks to the genius of resident choreographer and director Heinz Spoerli. "Frankfurt, headed by the American choreographer William Forsythe, is the most innovative, though," he said.
Schmidt says the festival is more than a hobby for him. "It's part of my life. I fear for its continuation. When we began, 30 cities participated. Two years ago there were 12, and this year only six. We depend upon allocations from the cities, who in turn will give money if their people turn out to support the concerts. If not, they will look for other ways to spend their appropriations.
"Germany is like everywhere else. People don't have so much money, the economy is worrisome. They don't have money for high-priced tickets."