Word Wednesday: ‘Bauhaus Ballet’

This Week’s Word Is ‘Ballet.’

The school summer break is in its third week here in the UK, or possibly its 300th. I’ve lost count. Needless to say, it’s raining. Child-wrangling means that I don’t have a huge amount of time to devote to this week’s Word Wednesday post, but fortunately, I have a short but absolutely gorgeous book to review. This one is a little leftfield compared with my usual Word Wednesday fare, but why not come on a trip with me to the Bauhaus Ballet?

What is Bauhaus Ballet?

2019 is centennial anniversary of the Bauhaus movement. In 1922, German Modernist painter, sculptor, and choreographer, Oskar Schlemmer created the Bauhaus Ballet. His colorful geometric shapes explored the relationship between body and space by challenging and restricting the dancers. Gabby Dawnay (writer) and Lesley Barners (illustrator) celebrates Schlemmer’s work, with pop-up book Bauhaus Ballet. A “Pop Up Performance,” no less.

The book, published by Laurence King is similar in style, if not in content to another LK pop-up book, Midnight Monsters. As it’s a pop-up book, it’s comparatively short, being only 5 double-page spreads. This low number of pages belies how much work has gone into it. Bauhaus Ballet is a visual feast.

There isn’t very much text to each page, it’s the artwork that does the talking. Lesley Barnes has used a streamlined set of complementary colors, that is very pleasing to the eye. Each page is a geometric array of reds, pinks, blues and purples. The papercraft is impressive too. There’s nothing overly complicated but it fits the Bauhaus idea of form and function, bringing the ballet into the 3rd dimension.

Why Read Bauhaus Ballet?

This book is pretty niche, but if you have somebody in your life that likes Bauhaus or design and architecture in general, this book will instill a great deal of joy. Fans of pop-up books and papercraft will love it too. It really is beautiful to behold and a great jumping-off point for discovering more about the influential Bauhaus style.

The Bauhaus Ballet is published August 26th (possibly later in the US) and is available here, in the UK and here, in the US. (Affiliate links)

If you enjoyed this review, please do check out my other Word Wednesday posts.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.