The dancer and actress Valeska Gert revolutionised the performing arts in 1920s Berlin and Paris. In Volker Schlöndorff's documentary Nur zum Spaß, nur zum Spiel – Kaleidoskop Valeska Gert from the year 1977, the 84-year-old artist described herself as “really and to be precise the wildest act back then”. And, it is true, her powerfully, lasciviously and stunningly danced grotesque performances and scenes brought both wild enthusiasm and heavy protests as reactions at the time.

In Schlöndorff's film Valeska Gert speaks about her life, her art and her years of exile in the USA. Poetry recitations and dance performances (some of them danced by the young actress Pola Kinski) give us an idea of the enormous energy that Valeska Gert brought to the stage – which she described in brief as follows: “The first newspapers wrote that I was more sparkling than Champagne, that I was as intoxicating as heavy wine, as fresh as the forest, as poisonous as a toadstool, that I reminded them of Barlach, Rodin, George Grosz, Hans Baldung Grien, Toulouse-Lautrec, Feliecien Rops, Thackeray, Balzac, Goya. They found me bizarre, grotesque, tragic, comical, depraved, classical, Gothic, Baroque, expressionist, surrealistic. Some fo them wrote: there are only three female dancers: Anna Pavlova, Karsavina, Valeska Gert.” Difficult to grasp hold of, unbelievably curious and ageless: that's how fascinating she was at the time of filming, guided through her memories by Volker Schlöndorff.

Further reading:

Valeska Gert: Ich bin eine Hexe. Kaleidoskop meines Lebens. München: Franz Schneekluth Verlag, 1968

Elke-Vera Kotowski: Valeska Gert: ein Leben in Tanz, Film und Kabarett. Jüdische Miniaturen. Berlin: Hentrich + Hentrich 2012.

Freunde d. Dt. Kinemathek e.V. (Hg.)., Ulrich u. Erika Gregor (Red.): Valeska Gert. Berlin 1978.