Editing Tristan Tzara (section)

===Birth of Dada===
[[File:Placa en Cabaret Voltaire retouched.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]] plaque commemorating the birth of Dada]]
It was in this milieu that [[Dada]] was born, at some point before May 1916, when a publication of the same name first saw print. The story of its establishment was the subject of a disagreement between Tzara and his fellow writers. Cernat believes that the first Dadaist performance took place as early as February, when the nineteen-year-old Tzara, wearing a [[monocle]], entered the Cabaret Voltaire stage singing sentimental melodies and handing paper wads to his "scandalized spectators", leaving the stage to allow room for masked actors on [[stilts]], and returning in clown attire.<ref name="pcern112">Cernat, pg. 112</ref> The same type of performances took place at the [[Zünfte of Zürich|Zunfthaus zur Waag]] beginning in summer 1916, after the Cabaret Voltaire was forced to close down.<ref>Cernat, pg. 115; Gendron, pp. 73-75; Hofman, pg. 3; Richter, pp. 39, 41–44, 48.</ref>

According to music historian Bernard Gendron, for as long as it lasted, "the Cabaret Voltaire was dada. There was no alternative institution or site that could disentangle 'pure' dada from its mere accompaniment [...] nor was any such site desired."<ref>Gendron, pg. 75.</ref> Other opinions link Dada's beginnings with much earlier events, including the experiments of [[Alfred Jarry]], [[André Gide]], [[Christian Morgenstern]], [[Jean-Pierre Brisset]], [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Jacques Vaché]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], and [[Francis Picabia]].<ref>Richter, pp 11, 71–72, 81–100, 168–173.</ref>

In the first of the movement's manifestos, Ball wrote: ''"[The booklet] is intended to present to the Public the activities and interests of the Cabaret Voltaire, which has as its sole purpose to draw attention, across the barriers of war and nationalism, to the few independent spirits who live for other ideals. The next objective of the artists who are assembled here is to publish a ''revue internationale'' [French for 'international magazine']."''<ref name="hrich14">Richter, pg. 14</ref> Ball completed his message in French, and the paragraph translates as: "The magazine shall be published in Zürich and shall carry the name 'Dada' ('Dada'). Dada Dada Dada Dada."<ref name="hrich14"/> The view according to which Ball had created the movement was notably supported by writer [[Walter Serner]], who directly accused Tzara of having abused Ball's initiative.<ref name="hrich123">Richter, pg. 123</ref>

A secondary point of contention between the founders of Dada regarded the paternity for the movement's name, which, according to visual artist and essayist [[Hans Richter (artist)|Hans Richter]], was first adopted in print in June 1916.<ref name="hrich32">Richter, pg. 32</ref> Ball, who claimed authorship and stated that he picked the word randomly from a dictionary, indicated that it stood for both the French-language equivalent of "[[Hobby horse (toy)|hobby horse]]" and a [[German language|German-language]] term reflecting the joy of children being rocked to sleep.<ref>Cernat, pp. 115-116; Richter, pp. 31-32.</ref> Tzara himself declined interest in the matter, but Marcel Janco credited him with having coined the term.<ref>Cernat, pp. 115-116.</ref> Dada manifestos, written or co-authored by Tzara, record that the name shares its form with various other terms, including a word used in the [[Kru languages]] of [[West Africa]] to designate the tail of a sacred cow; a toy and the name for "mother" in an unspecified [[Regional Italian|Italian dialect]]; and the double affirmative in Romanian and in various [[Slavic languages]].<ref>Cernat, pg. 116; Londré, pg. 397; Richter, pp. 31-32.</ref>