Against the backdrop of the diverse developments of postmodern dance, the dissertation explores how choreographic heritage can be re-examined and reinterpreted from a contemporary artistic and theoretical perspective. The works of Kurt Jooss (1901–1979) and Sigurd Leeder (1902–1981) serve as central reference points, representing a modernist approach that closely interweaves choreography and analysis and creativity, as well as dance practice and theory. In the first part of her artistic research project, Hermes engages with the dance score Danse macabre (1935) by Leeder and, in dialogue with it, develops her own choreography Five Attempts at Dancing with Death, which she subsequently notates using Rudolf Laban’s Kinetography, incorporating digital notation tools. The second part of the project, entitled One on the Outside, Countless Within. The Pomegranate and Transformation, focuses on different notations of Jooss’ Pavane on the Death of an Infanta (1929) and reflects on the artistic scope that emerges when historical notation signs are transferred into contemporary choreographic reinterpretation while integrating present-day contexts.
We would like to congratulate Karin Hermes on successfully defending her dissertation at ABU.
