The Makers of Modern Dance in Germany: Rudolf Laban, Mary Wigman, Kurt Jooss / Edition 1

by Isa Partsch-Bergsohn, Harold Bergsohn

Overview

This is the story of the founders of modern dance in Germany: Rudolf Laban, Mary Wigman, and Kurt Joos, whose work in the first half of the 20th century paralleled the independent development of modern dance in America-without being influenced by it. Laban is credited as being the most important innovator and guiding force and is best known as the inventor of Labanotation, a symbolic language for describing movement. Wigman became Laban's student in 1913 at a time when he was earning a reputation as an inspired choreographer and movement director. Joos was a young man of 19 when, hearing about Laban's pioneering work, he decided to pay a visit to the master. He soon became his assistant and lead male dancer. This book follows the connective threads of these remarkable individuals throughout their careers in chaotic times.

Author Biography: Isa Bergsohn is a former student of Mary Wigman. She is currently a professor of dance at the University of Arizona. Harold Bergsohn began his photographic career in 1950 at the New York Herald Tribune. They live in Tucson, Arizona.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871272508
Publisher:	Princeton Book Company
Publication date:	09/01/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.34(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	VII
	Introduction	IX
	Rudolf Von Laban	1
	Munich	5
	Emile Jaques-Dalcroze	7
	Monte Verita	8
	Mary Wigman	9
	Dance Practice at Monte Verita	11
	The War Years	13
	Dada in Zurich, 1916-1919	14
	Laban in Stuttgart	16
	Kurt Jooss	17
	Jooss Meets His Master	18
	Gleschendorf	21
	Jooss And Leeder	23
	Laban in America	24
	The Folkwang School	25
	First Dancers Congress	26
	Second Dancers Congress	27
	Wigman Goes It Alone, 1920	30
	Gret Palucca	31
	Wigman As A Pedagogue	36
	Hanya Holm	37
	Berthe Trumpy	39
	Vera Skoronel	40
	Yvonne Georgi	42
	Harald Kreutzberg	44
	Wigman Comes to America	46
	Wigman and the Nazis	51
	Mary Wigman 1944: A Recollection	54
	The Wigman School in New York	55
	Jooss and the Nazis	61
	The Green Table	61
	The Flight Out of Germany	64
	Jooss In America	65
	Laban And The Nazis	66
	Jooss In England	70
	Life at Dartington Hall	71
	Laban's Rescue	75
	Laban Meets F.C. Lawrence	75
	Laban and Jooss in Wartime England	76
	The Art of Movement Studio	77
	A Night to Remember Leipzig, February 4, 1945	79
	Wigman: 1945-1949	80
	Wigman: The Post-Communist Years	81
	Jooss: The Post-War Years	83
	Kurt Jooss 1948: An Impression	86
	Jooss in The Sixties and Seventies	88
	The Legacy	92
	Laban	92
	Jooss	93
	Wigman	94
	Endnotes	96
	Videography	99
	Bibliography	100
	Photograph credits	101

Editorial Reviews

For the material never before published, this book is important reading
—December, 2003

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