Staging language: Milca Mayerova and the Czech book Alphabet

(63.) The reviewer "vr," after seeing Mayerova perform with her new pupils, wrote that she succeeded least where she aimed to be most serious: "Far better are the humorous dance illustrations (e.g., Nezval's 'Alphabet') and above all the comedic routines ...." (vr, "Milca Mayerova," Pravo lidu, Mar. 8, 1927, 6). The cautious theater critic Miroslav Rutte reviewed the "Nezval Evening" with mixed praise, claiming in particular that Mayerova's idea to "accompany the recitation of Nezval's 'Alphabet' with mime illustrations ... is something quite far removed from the Liberated [that is, Devetsil] program" (Rutte, "Vecer Vitezslava Nezvala" [V. N. evening], Narodni listy, Apr. 20, 1926, 4).

(64.) Marie Pujmanova-Hennerova, "Vitezslav Nezval," Tribuna, Jan. 16, 1927, 6; Klo [Dr. Klokoc-Fragner], "Scenicky vecer Vit. Nezvala" (V. N. stage evening), Narodni osvobozeni, Apr. 20, 1926, 3.

(65.) Laban (as in n. 46), 8.

(66.) M. Mayerova, "O novem tanecnim umeni (Labanova methoda)" (On the new dance art [Laban method]), Tanecni revue 2, nos. 7-8 (Apr. 1926): 84.

(67.) "Anketa (Milca Majerova [sic], diplomovana ucitelka tanecni gymnastiky)" (Survey [M. M., certified teacher of dance gymnastics]), Eva 1, no. 3 (Dec. 15, 1928): 9.

(68.) M. Mayerova, "O kostymech" (On costumes), Eva 3, no. 7 (Feb. 1, 1931): 9.

(69.) Ibid.

(70.) M. Mayerova, "Cvicime s detmi," Eva 6, no. 1 (Nov. 1, 1933): 23.

(71.) Marsha Meskimmon, We Weren't Modern Enough: Women Artists and the Limits of German Modernism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 68.

(72.) Ibid., 181-82.

(73.) Only a small cadre of Mayerova's pupils actually performed, for example. Eva Willenbrinkova and Hana Bouskova, interviews with the author, Nov. and Dec. 2000.

(74.) Toepfer (as in n. 42), 284, provides a broad comparative context for these assertions, because he discusses the phenomenon of "body culture" and dance in particular with some attention to its manifestations across central Europe. In Germany proper, Toepfer contends, forms of dance performance engaged "in a power struggle in which modern dance attempted to appropriate some of the terrain occupied by the established, subsidized institutions for opera, ballet, and literary drama." Modern dance forms won real recognition by creating a following for distinct personalities in the 1910s and early 1920s and then establishing a terrific number of schools to capitalize on the groundswell of interest in the later 1920s. During the 1930s, several dance leaders obtained positions at state-run cultural institutions as well, gaining a position that allowed them to launch or further the careers of graduates from their own schools. Nothing on this scale seems to have taken place in Czechoslovakia. Modern dance there remained at the level of occasional public appearances and infrequent collaborations with institutional ballet and theater. Jarmila Kroschlova gives some account of the careers followed by leading personalities in Czech modern dance in Vyrazovy tanec (Expressive dance) (Prague: Orbis, 1964).