Kurt Jooss was a courageous individualist throughout his life - as a dancer and in his political views and actions.
He was one of the founders in 1927 of Folkwangschule Essen, an arts college, where he established the dance department and a free experimentalist troupe, the Folkwang Dance Theatre Studio. When Hitler came to power in 1933, he refused to fire his Jewish colleagues and left Germany instead. England became his new home and the base for his work.
This hommage to Kurt Jooss is the most comprehensive presentation of his life and work ever shown on TV. Film footage, videos and photographs bring to life about 100 years of dance history. Scenes of Jooss' most renowned ballets are presented, as well as appearances of his most famous students, Pina Bausch and Birgit Cullberg. Amateur footage shown for the first time, filmed in the 1930s and 1940s, provides insight into the era of the legendary “Ballets Jooss,” and scenes filmed for this documentary follow the traces of Kurt Jooss' oeuvre until the present day.
100 Jahre Kurt Jooss. TANZ-Geschichten 35
Preview mit Filmfest, Köln 2001
> Dance Camera West Festival 2004
> Kurt Jooss Nachlass im Deutschen Tanzarchiv Köln
Citation Danse auf dem XXVI. Festival International du Film d'Art,
Paris 2002
In filmarchives
> Internationales Theaterinstitut Berlin, Mediathek
> Filmkatalog Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln
Further reading
Patricia Stöckemann:
Etwas ganz Neues muss nun entstehen. Kurt Jooss und das Tanztheater
K. Kieser Verlag, 2001
ISBN 3-935456-02-6
