T Arts: Dance

DATE: c1928-1995

LEVEL: Series

Early Trust Arts Dance records document the School of Dance-Mime at Dartington under the direction of Margaret Barr. There are records of early estate performances of Comus and a nativity play at Staverton Church. Also school prospectuses and programmes, administrative material and reports. Includes correspondence with Beatrice Straight as secretary to the School of Dance-Mime.

The core of the Trust Arts Dance records data primarily from the professional period and include correspondence with Kurt Jooss and members of the Ballets Jooss (Fritz Cohen, L Greanin), and also Rudolf Laban. Ballets Jooss records include their American tour in 1935, and an aliens register with names of members of the Jooss-Leeder School of Dance and other German refugees on the Dartington estate, completed about 1940. Other similar records document the troubles of refugees at Dartington in the early days of World War II. There are also school records including class registers for the Jooss-Leeder School of Dance, tuition fees, curriculum etc, a prospectus for the school, and other material. Ballets Jooss records include correspondence with company members resident and on tour, contracts, performance lists and receipts, and private interviews with German members of the Arts Department.

One folder includes correspondence between the Dartington Hall Trust and Jenny Gertz, a dance movement specialist who worked with child evacuees during World War II.

The series also contains a record of choreographer and movement theorist Rudolf Laban, resident at Dartington between 1938 and 1940. The Laban records include correspondence between Laban and Trust founders and employees, letters from Lisa Ullmann, and later records of the establishment of the Laban Art of Movement Studio. The reports include a study on the introduction of Laban-Lawrence Industrial Rhythm to Dartington Hall Trustees and Dartington Hall Ltd - observations and training. Correspondents include F C Lawrence. Also included are records of the establishment of the Addlestone-based Laban Art of Movement Centre. In all, the Laban records at Dartington cover the years 1938 to 1985 and include letters, reports, memoranda, grant applications, press cuttings, brochures and obituaries.

Other correspondents in this series include Leonard Elmhirst, Christopher Martin, F A S Gwatkin, E S Porter, W B Curry. There is also general material on recitals and courses at Dartington.

Dartington's first dance instructor of significance was Leslie Burrowes who began taking classes in September 1928. She was succeeded by Margaret Barr who arrived at Dartington in January 1930, with Rosemary Shoeler and Joyce Peters, forming a small professional troupe. Barr established the Dartington School of Dance-Mime, which lasted for four years. The School offered classes in dancing all through the week to pupils at the School and members of the Dartington Hall estate. Assisted by Louise Soelberg, Margaret Barr also staged productions on the estate, using estate workers and performers.

In the summer of 1934, the Ballets Jooss company arrived at Dartington as refugees from Germany, displacing Margaret Barr and the School of Dance Mime. The troupe's arrival marked the beginning of a large influx of European artists, that was to dominate the artistic life of Dartington for six years. Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder also started a dance school administered by the Trust (Jooss-Leeder School of Dance) The School began on trial for a year at Dartington, with 29 students of which 20 were subsidised by the Arts Department. Gradually, fee-paying students were recruited as the School's reputation grew. In September 1939 over 40 students had been registered, but the outbreak of war put an end to further development and the School broke up. During its existence the School did excellent work , and provided entrants, qualified by diploma, into the Ballets Jooss (see below).

The flight of the Ballets Jooss from Germany to avoid Nazi persecution induced the Trustees to offer the troupe a home at Dartington. Jooss was a major figure in the world of ballet, and this was reflected in the quality of all the other artists - dancers, musicians and designers - whom he brought or attracted to Dartington, and in the work that they did there. Dartington's reputation as an international centre of the Arts began to grow.

While the Ballets were officially resident at Dartington, the architect William Lescaze was commissioned to design a building for the Ballets Jooss. The result was Warren House which became the home of the group as they rehearsed, before undertaking tours of Britain, America, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and northern Europe. In 1940, German refugee artists and performers sheltering at the Hall were forced to leave Devon, which had been declared a protected area, following the Battle of Dunkirk. The men were later interned and in some cases deported during World War II.

Rudolf Laban's connection with Dartington dates from 1938. He entered Britain on the strength of a personal invitation from his ex-pupil Kurt Jooss. Laban stayed with Jooss at Warren House, Dartington. He was given a studio of his own and occupied himself with the making of models for demonstrating dance movement. Lisa Ullmann, a member of the Ballets Jooss, eventually devoted herself entirely to him and his ideas. Laban set up the Art of Movement Studio school in Manchester, and summer schools were held at Dartington. With the support of William Elmhirst, a new school was established at Addlestone, Surrey, and a Trust set up.

For more detail see Dartington Hall 1925-1956, A Report by Victor Bonham-Carter; 8, The Arts, and appendix 3 - Rudolf Laban (from the Anatomy of Ballet by Fernau Hall)

Information for Researchers

All papers belonging to The Dartington Hall Trust Archive (with the exclusion of Dartington Hall School pupils individual records) are held at the Devon Record Office. All enquiries relating to research should be made to Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
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