Kurt Jooss Research Paper

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Kurt Jooss is not only a first generation Modern Dance choreographer but also a ballet dancer. He was famous as the founding father of “Tanztheater” or Dance Theater, which is an expressive dance style that combined movement, text and drama. One of his representative works involved this dance style is The Green Table. This choreography has allowed Kurt Jooss to win his first prize at an international competition and marked an important step in his career. Like his many other ballets as A Ball in Old Vienna and The Big City, it is still performed by people today. Jooss is a natural leader and independent thinker. He spent his whole life on choreography. He sought for connection between movements and words all the time. Jooss’s choreography seems to tell a story; stories about urban alienation, social injustice and post-war…show more content…
It depicted the gay and gallant life of the 1840s. The movements in the performance are exaggerated. According to the University of California Press, “He [Jooss] implied that the waltz disguised the desire to assert power over an entire social class: one asserted power over the body of one’s partner in a context elaborately contrived to produce this disguise--the ball” (“Kurt Jooss”). In the ballet, the audience could frequently see the scene that “sentimental” ladies lay on the ground while their partners stand in front of them as a commander. The ladies sat on the ground and their crinoline covers their legs which have been rolled together. Their hands are in full extension as they look up the men. The men act like enforcing some power on the ladies when they are guiding the ladies to move. Jooss believes the dance itself indicates an intensely physical attraction in the actions and reactions of those who are able to exercise power over others (“Kurt

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