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“America Is the Future”: A Dance Travelogue into the Past by Rudolf Laban

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2013

Evelyn Doerr
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Abstract

In the paper the choreographer Rudolf Laban plays a decisive role. More precisely, the paper's focus is on the journey he undertook through the United States in 1926. The title, “America is the Future,” is a citation from Labans dance travelogues. Exploring the questions this sentiment raises lies at the heart of the study.

Type
Research Article
Information
Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings , Volume 39 , supplement S1: Choreographies Of Migration: Patterns Of Global Mobility , 2007 , pp. 54 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007

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References

Notes

1. Rudolf Laban, 1926 postcard to the dancer and dance pedagogue Wulff, Käthe, in Doerr, Evelyn, “Es umarmt Dich, dein R…!”, volume 2 of Rudolf Laban in Briefwechseln mit Tanzern, Choreographen und Tanzpädagogen (Norderstedt: BoD, 2008)Google Scholar.

2. Rudolf Laban, “Die Tanze der USA,” (1926), typewritten manuscript in German, National Resource Center for Dance (NRCD), University of Surrey, UK, E(L)/49/19. (All quotations from Laban's unpublished manuscripts used in this article have been translated by the author.)

3. Rudolf Laban, “Notes on New York,” (1926), handwritten manuscript in German, NRDC, E(L)/49/18.

4. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

5. Ibid.

6. Rudolf Laban, “Die Bewegungssprache der Amerikaner,” (1926), handwritten manuscript in German, NRDC, E(L)/49/13.

7. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

8. Ibid.

9. Lindau, Paul, Aus der Neuen Welt: Briefe aus dem Osten und Westen der Vereinigten Staaten, edited by Wersig, Von Peter (Berlin: Rütten and Loening, 1990), 461Google Scholar.

10. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

11. Laban, “Die Bewegungssprache der Amerikaner,” NRDC, E(L)/49/13.

12. Laban, “Notes on New York,” NRDC, E(L)/49/18.

13. Laban, “Die Bewegungssprache der Amerikaner,” NRDC, E(L)/49/13.

14. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

15. Ibid.

16. Rudolf Laban, “Der Tod des europäischen Kunsttraumes,” (1926), handwritten manuscript in German, NRDC, E(L)/49/16.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid.

20. Doerr, Evelyn, Rudolf Laban—The Dancer of the Crystal (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2007), 112Google Scholar.

21. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

22. Rudolf Laban, “Der wahre Don Juan,” (1926), handwritten manuscript in German, NRDC, E(L)/49/8.

23. Doerr, Evelyn, Rudolf Laban—Das choreographische Theater Die erste vollständige Ausgabe des Labanschen Werkes (Norderstedt: BoD, 2004), 265–88Google Scholar. A transcript of Laban's script can be found in Doerr, Evelyn, Rudolf Laban—Das choreographische Theater, 2nd revised and extended ed. (Norderstedt: BoD, 2008)Google Scholar. The book is a historical-critical edition of Laban's complete chorographical oeuvre. It contains documentation for more than one hundred choreographical works, libretti, film pantomimes, and screen-plays and is supplemented by numerous photographs, set and costume sketches, and dance notations.

24. Doerr, , Rudolf Laban—The Dancer of the Crystal, 56Google Scholar.

25. Ibid., 147.

26. Rudolf Laban to Adam Meisenbach, April 23, 1920, in Doerr, “Es umarmt Dich, dein R…!”

27. Later Laban asserted that his Don Juan film was produced. He wrote “By the way, one of the first sound films was made of my ballet ‘Don Juan’ with me in the leading role.” Rudolf Laban to Rachel Percival, April 3, 1957, in Doerr, Evelyn, “Dear Friends,” volume 3 of Rudolf Laban in Briefwechseln mit Tänzern, Choreographen und Tanzpädagogen (Norderstedt: BoD, 2008)Google Scholar.

28. Laban, “Der Tod des europäischen Kunsttraumes,” NRDC, E(L)/49/16.

29. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

30. Rudolf Laban, “Hollywood—Film und Bewegung,” NRDC, E(L)/49/8.

31. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

32. Laban, “Der Tod des europäischen Kunsttraumes,” NRDC, E(L)/49/16.

33. Ibid.

34. “Laban über Tanz in Amerika Ein Reisebericht,” (1926), Poster, Dance Archive e. V., Leipzig.

35. Laban, “Die Tänze der USA,” NRDC, E(L)/49/19.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid.

39. “Rudolf Laban—Tanz in Amerika,” Würzburger General Anzeiger 18, no. 215 (1926).

40. Laban, “Die Bewegungssprache der Amerikaner,” NRDC, E(L)/49/13.

41. Ibid.

42. Die Schönheit. Mit Bildern geschmückte Zeitschrift für Kunst und Leben (Dresden Verlag d. Schönheit, 1926).

43. Doerr, , Rudolf Laban—The Dancer of the Crystal, 117Google Scholar.

44. Ibid., 203.

45. Mall, Ram Adhar, Philosophie im Vergleich der Kulturen. Interkulturelle Philosophie—eine neue Orientierung (Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchgesellschaft, 1995), 8Google Scholar.