German expressionist dance?
November 3, 2008 11:53 PM   Subscribe

I'm remembering footage of some sort of dance performance: early 20th century, probably in Germany - "German expresssionism" is how I remember it described - very "gothic" or Butoh-like: bald white-painted man with black swirling cloak or coat.... Hive-mind, can you point me in the right direction? Actual type of dance, choreographer, links to this or additional or similar footage, anything else?
posted by madmatx to Media & Arts (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
It seems possible that this was involving dance theorist Rudolf Laban or his pupil and choreographer in her own right, Mary Wigman. They are both classified as figures of German Expressionist dance who contributed to the rise of butoh.

That's just my googlage. I didn't find any video or photos that looked like that.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:22 AM on November 4, 2008


I've got vague memories of seeing something like this in dance history classes.
As well as Rudolph Laban there is a good chance that it is Kurt Jooss (a pupil of Laban's). His famous works are the Dance of Death, and The Green Table (images here and here) -- an anti war ballet. I think there is original footage of this around.

Expressionist Dance describes the early works, which lead to the style of dance known as Tanztheater. You might be interested in the work of german choreographer Pina Bausch who produces contemporary tanztheater works.
posted by tallus at 6:43 AM on November 4, 2008


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