ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКАЯ ПОЕЗДКА В ШВЕЙЦАРИЮ, СЕНТЯБРЬ 2019

One of the aims of the research trip to Switzerland was to get more knowledge on Ami Schwaninger. Werner Suhr’s book on her Potiphar’s Wife, which so suddenly popped up in Cologne Dance Archive, proved to be a bibliographical rarity (no Austrian library seems to hold it). Werner Suhr (1900-1966) however was not an amateur admirer; in fact, he authored a number of works on modern dance. When this book was published, he was just 24, but he had already worked for several seasons as a critic. In a couple of years his book Das Gesicht des Tanzes collected his texts written between 1922 and 1927. Another book of him – Der künstlerische Tanz – opens with the photo of Mary Wigman. So, he was aware about the hierarchy of values in the dance of his time. Yet, he dedicated a separate book to Schwaninger. 

In her blog of „Tanzgeschichten” the dance historian Gunhilde Oberzaucher-Schüller cites Suhr’s opinion as an evidence that Schwaninger’s performance drew attention of a „serious reviewer” as well. However, it seems that she doesn’t write about her Potiphar’s Wife anywhere else.

Schwaninger is mentioned in the Karl Toepfer’s book on pantomime. According to this information Schwaninger, together with Iril Gadescov who danced Joseph, started her tour with Josephslegende and another ballet by Strauss – Schlagober, in choreography of Max Semmler, in Gera and Rostock, 1924. Oberzauer-Schüller also writes about the second ballet, but mentions Breslau as a place of its premiere.

However, according to the documentation of Cologne Dance Archive, the premiere of this version of Josephslegende took place as early as February 8, 1922, in Bern…

After my trip to the homeland of the dancer, there are still a lot of mysteries around her name. She was born in St.Gallen, but it is unknown when precisely. In Swiss sources she is mainly mentioned as „an artist from Bern”. In spite of data on other parts of her (Pierette in the Dohnanyi – Schnitzler pantomime Der Schleier der Pierette, Nymph in L’après-midi d’un Faune, Peri in the eponymous work by Paul Dukas, The Girl in The Miraculous Mandarin), her name is connected mainly with Josephslegende. Potiphar’s Wife became the role of her life. There is numerous evidence about her touring with this ballet still in the 1930-s. But in the Swiss theatre archive SAPA one can find also a clipping that dates 1941 (Neue Zürchner Zeitung, March 31), according to which that year Schwaninger still was on stage in this part. The reviewer mentions that such Potiphar’s Wife which spectators saw that night was hardly dangerous for Joseph because “ihr fehlt das Verführerische, sinnlich Betörende, also gerade das, was Wesen und Glaubwürdigkeit dieser Gestalt ausmachen sollte”. The role could have changed, of course, but the fact that it was not about „the trick of sensuality” either in the 1920-s is evidenced by the citations from the numerous reviews which, for the aims of advertisement, were reproduced by the journal of Basel Theatre before Schwaninger appearance there in 1923 (!).

Here they are: 

The search is going on!