Empire of Ecstasy offers a novel interpretation of the explosion of German body culture between the two warsmdash;nudism and nude dancing; gymnastics and dance training; dance photography and criticism; and diverse genres of performance from solo dancing to mass movement choirs. Karl Toepfer presents this dynamic subject as a vital and historically unique construction of "modern identity." The modern body; radiating freedom and power; appeared to Weimar artists and intelligentsia to be the source of a transgressive energy; as well as the sign and manifestation of powerful; mysterious "inner" conditions. Toepfer shows how this view of the modern body sought to extend the aesthetic experience beyond the boundaries imposed by rationalized life and to transcend these limits in search of ecstasy. With the help of much unpublished or long-forgotten archival material (including many little-known photographs); he investigates the process of constructing an "empire" of appropriative impulses toward ecstasy. Toepfer presents the work of such well-known figures as Rudolf Laban; Mary Wigman; and Oskar Schlemmer; along with less-known but equally fascinating body culture practitioners. His book is certain to become required reading for historians of dance; body culture; and modernism.
#1117110 in eBooks 2010-10-07 2010-10-07File Name: B004CCRICU
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An amazing play...saw it twiceBy KitThis play was presented by the National Theatre of Scotland in San Francisco this summer. We were so impressed. we went to see it a second time. My hearing isnt what it used to be...although I used a hearing assist device. sometimes the wonderful Scottish brogue was a little too much for me...so I wanted to read the script to see just what I might have missed. Reading it made the experience complete for an old fellow like me. What an amazing theatrical experience. More like it. PLEASE...0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Translator!By KbAs an Aussie we are rightly accused of colloquisms. though this play gave me a wry smile as I struggled through the dialogue. Friends who have seen the play performed rave about it - particularly once they pick up the language nuances.Stripped bare though this is a marvellous. internationally relevant commentary on the issue of modern warfare from the foot sloggers.Well worth the read and thoroughly recommended.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An exceptionally blunt statement/play about the Black Watch. Afghanistan ...By Robert DickensAn exceptionally blunt statement/play about the Black Watch. Afghanistan. PTSD and its decompression and British politics in regards the Black Watch.
