This chapter argues for an extension of our historical view of Dada to include the vital influence of Munich and Der Blaue Reiter. It focuses on Hugo Ball, founder of Dada, and on his changing engagement with the theatre, with modern art and with the figure of the artist, first in Munich and then in Zurich. The chapter explores how, for Ball, Kandinsky was both the consummate artist and, eventually, a tangential cause of Ball’s disillusionment with and departure from the artistic avant-garde. The chapter brings to light some key primary sources relating to Ball’s ideas for what would become the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. As a whole, it makes a case for a more nuanced account of the relationship between Expressionism and Dada, and between the avant-gardes of Munich and Zurich, before and during World War I.