Detailed Description
Nacht (1927) comments on 'the love of dollars, deceit and depravity' of city life in the depressed post WWI years of the Weimar Republic.
Rudolf Laban's radical approach to dance theatre incorporates improvisation and the creative input of the dancers to prioritise corporeality and the grotesque.
The performance (19 minutes), by dancers from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, focuses on Alison Curtis-Jones's recreation of the dance, based on research by Dr. Valerie Preston-Dunlop, renowned authority on Rudolf Laban's life and work.
In the documentary section of the DVD (29 minutes) historian Dr. Martin Hargreaves interviews Dr. Preston-Dunlop and Alison Curtis-Jones with illustrations from Weimar artists and footage of class, rehearsal and performance to provide insights into Rudolf Laban's experimental theatre work, the culture that surrounded him, and the nature of recreation as a dynamic engagement with the dance heritage.
