Students from Contemporary Dance and Improvisation, Advanced Dance Technique and Okpalugo’s “The West and the Rest” intellectual history courses attended a performance of  Kurt Jooss'  legendary 1932 anti-war ballet "The Green Table” danced by The Paul Taylor Dance Company at Lincoln Center. In the days that followed, guest artist Richard Chen See (Taylor Company) engaged with dance and history students in an interval discussion of art, history, politics, and power moderated by dance and history students Adia Conteh '24 and Tali Kantor Lieber '24. 

At this event, they explored the historical context of an artist creating work in the 1930s between two World Wars and how life can imitate art, where the art produced sometimes foreshadows future societal events — even in the life of an individual like the artist. Kurt Jooss would become a refugee in a war camp just a few short years after he premiered "The Green Table.”

Dance students also engaged in two master repertory classes taught by Chen See. The first featured a close reading and performance of the opening “Table Scene” featuring “The Power Broker” characters. The second class adapted a choreographic sequence from "The Battle" scene, which focused on how directional movement and rhythm might convey conflict and opposing sides. There was an opportunity for the dancers to improvise and incorporate their own movement sequence into these scenes.

Chen See shared a dance score of the Green Table and discussed the role of Labanotation in the preservation and reconstruction of the dance. He touched on the origins and lineage of Dance Theater, which was passed down from Rudolph Laban to Kurt Joos to Pina Bausch. Some dance students are currently engaged in assignments exploring the work of Laban and Bausch. Other students have been learning Paul Taylor repertory pieces with Dance Teacher Winston Dynamite, similar in style to Taylor’s “Arden Court” performed in the concert at Lincoln Center. We look forward to more interdisciplinary projects drawing on the rich cultural world of NYC!

Check out photos from this project here!