Born in the Swabian town of Wasseralfingen as the son of a brewery owner, Kurt Jooss initially studied music, acting, and dance in Stuttgart. Inspired by the possibilities of Ausdruckstanz—expressionist dance rooted in the life-reform movement—he discontinued his studies to become a student of Rudolf von Laban, the most influential figure in that field at the time. In 1922, Jooss joined Laban’s dance company and soon advanced to become a teacher at Laban’s school in Hamburg as well as his assistant. Two years later, he moved to the Münster Stadttheater as movement director and ballet master, where he combined Laban’s principles with the practical demands of the stage, developing his own distinctive form of dance theater. In 1927, Jooss was appointed head of the dance department at the newly founded Folkwang School in Essen, and in 1930 he also took over the ballet at the city’s Stadttheater. That same year, he and Laban collaborated on the choreography for the Venusberg Bacchanal in Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival. The press hailed the production as “a directorial achievement of the highest order,” while Jooss himself later described the experience as “one of the most beautiful things we ever lived through.” His international breakthrough followed two years later: in 1932, Jooss and his company won first prize at the Archives Internationales de la Danse competition in Paris with the ballet Der Grüne Tisch – Ein Totentanz. Just a few months later, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
Because of its Jewish members, Jooss’s company immediately became a target of the Nazi authorities in Essen, who demanded their dismissal. Jooss, however, remained loyal to his dancers, refused to comply, and was himself denounced as a “Mosaic temple dancer”. By September of 1933, the situation had become dangerous. Fearing arrest, Jooss organized an escape shortly before a planned European tour. Instead of departing at the announced time, he and his ensemble secretly left the city several days earlier and fled to the Netherlands. From there, the company went into exile in England in 1934. After his escape from Essen, his contract with the Folkwang School allowed to expire. In the years that followed, however, Jooss succeeded in establishing his own dance school at Dartington Hall in southern England and enjoyed considerable success as a choreographer. However, the outbreak of the war in 1939 marked another turning point: as German nationals, members of his company were barred from returning from a tour of the United States, and Jooss himself was interned in England for several months in 1940. After his release, he managed to continue running his school and company in Cambridge until 1947. In 1949, Jooss returned to Essen, where he once again headed the dance department at the Folkwang School. In the years that followed, he remained in demand internationally as a choreographer and teacher. Kurt Jooss died on May 22, 1979, in Heilbronn following a car accident.
1901 Wasseralfingen
1979 Heilbronn