Price or commemorative medal for the Dance Competitions during the 1936 Olympic Games. Bronze cast in great conditions.

In 1936, dance was one art form that the Germans wanted to add to their Art Competitions during the Olympic Games, along with Gold and Silver Smithing, and Works of the Screen (sport film). Expanding the subcategories in each of the five art disciplines, which would have increased the number of medals as well as the number of potential participants, was the German goal for the Berlin Games. Approval by the International Olympic Committee, however, was required and none was forthcoming, not for the addition of Dance, nor for Gold and Silver Smithing or Works of the Screen. Dance, however, played a significant part both before, and during, the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Nazi organizers sought to draw international attention to the achievements of their leader, Adolf Hitler, and one way to succeed was through the popular medium of dance. Noted German choreographers and dancers of the day were enlisted to play a part in the Olympic program: Rudolf von Laban, Mary Wigman, and Harald Kreutzberg. In her book, Modern Dance in Germany and the United States: Crosscurrents and Influences, Isa Partsch-Bergsohn details Laban's extensive involvement with Olympic preparations as follows: "Laban, a master at arranging mass scenes in choral dancing, was commissioned to direct the triumphal celebration of German Dance at the Dietrich Eckart Freilichtbühne (Outdoor Theater) and to organize a Great International Dance Competition in July 1936." The dance celebration to inaugurate the Dietrich Eckart stage at the Olympic grounds took place on the opening night of the Games.

From: “The Role of Dance in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games” out of “SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM FOR OLYMPIC RESEARCH” by ELIZABETH A. HANLEY, Pages 133 ff.