When the young dancer Paulus Berensohn first saw a potter throw a cylinder in the late 1950s, he knew: “that’s the dance to learn”.

From then on, he swapped dancing on Broadway for dancing with clay. June 15 2017, at the age of 84, he exchanged the dance of life for the dance of eternity.

“I knew how to dance on a stage, but how was I going to dance in life?” (documentary “To Spring from the Hand”, 2013)

I got to know Berensohn only through his in 1972 published book “Finding one’s way with clay”, interviews and a documentary about his life. In it, he advocated a slower, mind-full and integrated approach to working with clay. He has had a big influence on me and many other ceramists.

Thumbs pot: squeezing clay

The first thing I learned to make with clay in kindergarten was a “thumbs pot” as we call them in the Netherlands. According to Berensohn, this is the best way to start the dance with clay : small-scale and intimate.

The English term “pinch pottery” describes the process better than the Dutch “thumbs pot“. The clay is formed with rhythmic squeezing (“pinch“) into a pot (“pottery“).

His book ,“Finding one’s way with clay”, describes the process in a very extensive way. Both in his work and his book he manages to touch and inspire people.

Berensohn has thus passed on his respect for the material and mastery of this pinching technique to future generations of ceramists. For him, it was not only a ceramic technique, but also a form of meditation.

Hand-shaped ceramics the new yoga

According to Vogue, hand-shaped ceramics are the new yoga. When model Emily Ratajkowski poses in front of a potters’s wheel, even Vogue readers saw how hand-shaped ceramics give us the connection with the earth. In the year of his death, Berensohn’s message seems to have finally reached the general public (the absolutely fabulous crowd).

But Berensohn didn’t act, he lived and danced with clay even when no iPhone was aimed at him. He pleaded for a creative and mind-full existence and not just to boost his social media life.

Treading in the footsteps of the Aboriginals, according to Paulus the function of the artist is  “to sing up the earth“. It’s fine to share this by social media, but it’s more important to “master” it.

Dancing with clay

Paulus Berensohn was more than just a dancer and a ceramist. He was also a mentor, teacher, philosopher and deep ecologist. His life is celebrated by the many people whose lives he has touched.

The 2013 documentary,‘To Spring from the Hand: the life and work of Paulus Berensohn’, tells the story of a long life of compassion and creative contemplation.

(or click on this link, to watch the trailer directly on YouTube)

Dancing with clay for him was “not a way of making a living, but a way of making a life“.

More about Paul Berensohn

Paulus Berensohn lives on in his book, interviews, a film about his life and of course his work. Below is an overview:

• Finding One’s Way With Clay: Creating Pinched Pottery and Working With Colored Clays, First Edition 1972
• Dialoge mit Ton: Schöpferisches Arbeiten mit Fingerdrucktechniken und gefärbten Massen (German version of his book)
• To Spring from the Hand, documentary from 2013
• Oral history interview with Paulus Berensohn, 2009 March 20-21
• The Jonescast ep 61: Poetry is Currency – Paulus Berensohn

About Post Author

Daniel Bende

Designs and creates under the trade name DFB-ceramics hand-thrown stoneware figurative ceramics.

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