Hitler's Dancers

German Modern Dance and the Third Reich

Lilian Karina, Marion Kant, Jonathan Steinberg

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN:
  9781571816887
  9781571813008
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782389583
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: World War II

The Nazis burned books and banned much modern art. However, few people know the fascinating story of German modern dance, which was the great exception. Modern expressive dance found favor with the regime and especially with the infamous Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda. How modern artists collaborated with Nazism reveals an important aspect of modernism, uncovers the bizarre bureaucracy which controlled culture and tells the histories of great figures who became enthusiastic Nazis and lied about it later. The book offers three perspectives: the dancer Lilian Karina writes her very vivid personal story of dancing in interwar Germany; the dance historian Marion Kant gives a systematic account of the interaction of modern dance and the totalitarian state, and a documentary appendix provides a glimpse into the twisted reality created by Nazi racism, pedantic bureaucrats and artistic ambition.

Table of contents

• Hitler’s Dancers
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• PART I. RECOLLECTIONS
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. A Historical Overview of the Labanist Period
• Chapter 2. Art and Culture under National Socialism
• Chapter 3. Sectarianism and Dance
• Chapter 4. The Fates of Emigrants
• Chapter 5. The Situation in Scandinavia
• Chapter 6. Laban’s Downfall and Post-Labanism
• Notes
• PART II “DANCE IS A RACE QUESTION.”
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 7. The Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda
• CHAPTER 8. The Nazi Redirection of Dance
• CHAPTER 9. Ministerial Dance Politicos—Rudolf von Laban and Otto von Keudell
• CHAPTER 10. The German Dance Theater and the German Master Workshops
• CHAPTER 11. The Next Stage
• CHAPTER 12. After Laban’s Fall
• Postscript
• Notes Part II
• PART III. THE NAZI ATTEMPT TO SUPPRESS JAZZ AND SWING
• Jazz, Swing and the Nazis
• Notes Part III
• PART IV. DANCE UNDER THE NAZIS
• Appendix
• Chronology
• Abbreviations and Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index