ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the work of the dancer and choreographer Jean Weidt brings into question the multiple layers of political meaning that can be ascribed to the modern dance form that developed in Germany in the early twentieth century. Though Weidt appears as one of the few political dancers in dance histories as the so called der rote Tanzer he is usually seen as an exception to and somewhat at the edge of what is considered Ausdruckstanz. Weidt's dancing practice and his political orientation and theoretical reflections exemplify the heterogeneous and complex relationship between political identity and cultural practices of the left in the Weimar Republic. The importance of spatial structures in Weidt's work becomes apparent when one sees how he contrasts this by placing four women in a line facing the audience. And Weidt was just one example of how Ausdruckstanz provided the means to embody left wing politics.
