'De Kleene Soll Tanzen!' The Death of the Dancer in Gerhart Hauptmann's Und Pippa Tanzt!

Abstract

This article focuses on the figure of the dancer and her dance in Gerhart Hauptmann's 1906 play Und Pippa tanzt. A close consideration of the play's two dance scenes is necessary to understand the title figure and the tragic ending of the play. Dance is connected both to the erotic and to the creative process, and both connections serve as possible motivations for Pippa's death. As the dancer becomes an alternative artist figure to the poet-seer Michel Hellriegel, the play reflects on the relationship of the material and the imagination, as well as on aesthetic tendencies at the beginning of the twentieth century.