Description

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First Published in 1995. In Modern Dance in Germany and the United States: Crosscurrents and Influences Isa Partsch-Bergsohn discusses the phenomenon of the modem dance movement between 1902 and 1986 in an international context, focussing on its beginnings in Europe and its philosophy as formulated by the pioneers Dalcroze, Laban, Wigman and Jooss. The author traces the effects the Third Reich had on these artists, and shows the influence these key choreographers had on the developing American modem dance movement through the postwar years, concentrating in particular on Kurt Jooss and his Tanztheater. When America took the lead in modem dance innovation during the sixties, artists such as Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey and Alwin Nikolais overwhelmed European audiences. Subsequently, the artists of the New German Tanztheater revitalized German theatre traditions by blending new content with some of the American contemporary dance techniques. Although the history of modem dance in these two countries is closely linked, the author describes how each country has kept its own unique and distinctive style.

About the Author

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Isa Partsch-Bergsohn was a former student of May Wigman at the Music Academy in Leipzig during World War II. She completed her diploma in dance pedagogy and choreography under Kurt Jooss at the Folkwang-School, Essen, Germany. The author was Professor of Dance at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and is now on the board of the Faculty of Fine Arts. She has also taught courses in European modem dance at the American Dance Festival at Duke University, North Carolina, at the Laban Centre in London, and at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies in New York.