E-Book Overview
Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Each volume explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences on twentieth and twenty-first-century performance. A dancer, teacher and choreographer, Mary Wigman was a leading innovator in expressionist dance. Her radical explorations of movement and dance theory are credited with expanding the scope of dance as a theatrical art in her native Germany and beyond. This book combines for the first time: a full account of Wigman’s life and work detailed discussion of her aesthetic theories, including the use of space as an ‘invisible partner’ and the transcendent nature of performance a commentary on her key works, including Hexentanz and The Seven Dances of Life an extensive collection of practical exercises designed to provide an understanding of Wigman’s choreographic principles and her uniquely immersive approach to dance. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today's student.
E-Book Content
Frontispiece Dance in Stillness from the dance cycle Autumnal Dances, 1937. Photograph by Siegfried Enkelman, courtesy of the Arkiv Darstellende Kunst, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
MARY WIGMAN
Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory guides to the key theater-makers of the last century. Each volume explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences on twentieth and twenty-firstcentury performance. A dancer, teacher and choreographer, Mary Wigman was a leading innovator in Expressionist dance. Her radical explorations of movement and dance theory are credited with expanding the scope of dance as a theatrical art in her native Germany and beyond. This book combines for the first time: a full account of Wigman’s life and work detailed discussion of her aesthetic theories, including the use of space as an “invisible partner” and the transcendent nature of performance a commentary on her key works, including Hexentanz and The Seven Dances of Life. an extensive collection of practical exercises designed to provide an understanding of Wigman’s choreographic principles and her uniquely immersive approach to dance. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today’s student. Mary Anne Santos Newhall is Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of New Mexico. She is also research director for the American Dance Legacy Institute at Brown University.
ROUTLEDGE PERFORMANCE PRACTITIONERS Series editor: Franc Chamberlain, University College Cork
Routledge Performance Practitioners is an innovative series of introductory handbooks on key figures in twentieth-century performance practice. Each volume focuses on a theater-maker whose practical and theoretical work has in some way transformed the way we understand theater and performance. The books are carefully structured to enable the reader to gain a good grasp of the fundamental elements underpinning each practitioner’s work. They will provide an inspiring springboard for future study, unpacking and explaining what can initially seem daunting. The main sections of each book cover:
personal biography explanation of key writings description of significant productions reproduction of practical exercises.
Volumes currently available in the series are: Eugenio Barba by Jane Turner Pina Bausch by Royd Climenhaga Augusto Boal by Frances Babbage Bertolt Brecht by Meg Mumford Michael Chekhov by Franc Chamberlain Jacques Copeau by Mark Evans Etienne Decroux by Thomas Leabhart Jerzy Grotowski