The Origins of Modern Movement
Rudolf Laban in Manchester

In association with MERZMAN – Kurt Schwitters in the North West and the Littoral Trust, the manchester modernist society invite you to a very special event:

6.00 Monday 21st March
Laban in Manchester: the origins of Modern (Dance) Movement in Britain – a stroll with Professor Dunlop Preston(and Rudolf Laban) along Oxford Road.
Meet outside Cornerhouse for 6pm start. (free)

Followed by A Public Lecture by Professor Valerie Preston-Dunlop

Public Lecture by Professor Valerie Preston-Dunlop
7.30pm Monday 21st March
Lecture theatre: Royal Northern College of Music, Oxford Road, Manchester

Born in Austria, Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) was one of the founders of European Modern Dance. In 1938 he fled from the Nazis and later established himself in Manchester where at the age of sixty, supported by Lisa Ullmann, he started a new phase in his career. He worked in industry, introducing work study methods to increase production through humane means, and greatly influenced the movement education culture in Britain opening, through Lisa Ullmann, The Art of Movement Studio in Manchester in 1946. The Art of Movement Studio was renamed Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in 1975, which later became Trinity Laban in South London.

http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/Trinity

Schwitters and LABAN: Manchester as the avant-garde centre of Modern art and movement 1946/47.
Rudolf Laban and, fellow refugee from the Nazis – Kurt Schwitters, were also in contact during 1946/47, and
were working together on plans for a pioneer MERZTANZ Modern Dance theatre project in Manchester. The talk will also discuss the possibility of a future commisson to reconstruct and stage the uncompleted Laban/Schwitters Dance theatre project, involving contemporary choreographers, artists, architects and dancers.

Valerie Preston-Dunlop is a consultant and researcher at Trinity Laban, a practical dance scholar and lecturer, and author of numerous books including the award winning Rudolf Laban: An Extraordinarty Life. She received her early training from Laban, Lisa Ullmann, Kurt Jooss and Albrecht Knust and after a short performing career went on to pioneered practice as part of her doctoral studies. Her current research interests are sacred geometry in human movement, re-finding and re-creating Laban!s dance works of the 1920s, and devising interactive mapping methods for documenting creative procedures. She also visited Kurt Schwitters! MERZ BARN in Cumbria in 1947, when Schwitters was still working on the project.

Admission free: But please book in advance with:
LITTORAL Arts Trust
42 Lodge Mill Lane
Turn Village
Lancashire BLO ORW T. 01706 827961 e. littoral@btopenword.com

www.merzman.co.uk