NEWS AT THE ARCHIVE :

EXHIBITIONS 2008 AT HIGH CROSS HOUSE

DANCER & CHOREOGRAPHER RUDOLF LABAN
70TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS ARRIVAL AT DARTINGTON & 50 YEARS SINCE HIS DEATH

PAINTER CECIL COLLINS
CENTENARY

Two visionaries from the wealth of artists who came to Dartington in the 20th century are celebrated at High Cross House on the Dartington Hall estate this summer. An exhibition using text, images, facsimiles and original pieces from The Dartington Hall Trust Archive marks the 70 th anniversary of dancer and choreographer Rudolf Laban’s arrival at Dartington in 1938 and 50 years since his death.

A second exhibition marks the centenary of painter Cecil Collins who directed the Art Studio workshop at Dartington in the late 1930s and the 1940s and who in his own words “carried the essence of the Dartington landscape within him as an ever present inspiration”.

Rudolf Laban

Rudolf Laban, a powerhouse of innovation in dance and choreography theory and practice, was the founder of today’s Laban centre in London. Born in Austria-Hungary in 1879 Laban moved to Berlin in 1930 as director of movement for the Allied State Theatres. Caught up in the rise of Nazism he was forced to flee the country after his open air production, a major community dance work, was banned by Goebbels from forming part of the opening ceremonies for the 1936 Olympic Games.

Laban came to Dartington at the invitation of his former student Kurt Jooss, who himself had been forced to flee Germany and been given a home for his ballet troupe by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. With his health in a fragile state Laban turned to his choreutic model making and drawing to find solace and strength.

He left in 1940 with Lisa Ullmann and together they set up a training studio in Manchester, which became the Art of Movement Studio in 1948. Later the Studio moved to Addlestone in Surrey and afterwards London.

In the 1940s Laban also worked with Frederick Lawrence, a management consultant of Paton Lawrence & Co, Manchester, on work efficiency in industry. Lawrence was impressed by Laban’s original views on movement analysis and his ability to notate work patterns on paper. The method, the Laban Lawrence Industrial Rhythm, involved experiments carried out in Dartington departments as well as other companies.

Cecil Collins

Cecil Collins is celebrated with a small exhibition of paintings and some original documents from the Archive. At Dartington Cecil painted and drew what he called many of his best works. “This period was one of the most fruitful of my creative life, not only in painting, for I was also writing a lot, clarifying my thoughts. All of this was combined with a great deal of teaching. The great beauty of the garden at Dartington, the river, hills, trees and surrounding countryside…made a deep impression on me.”

Landscape with the Artist, just one of the pictures on display in the exhibition, was painted by Collins at Dartington in 1938. The picture includes the artist in his green suit made from cloth woven in Scotland and coloured with vegetable dyes.

THESE EXHIBITIONS CAN BE SEEN AS PART OF THE TOUR OF HIGH CROSS HOUSE

The Trust Archive, Collection and High Cross House work together as a department of The Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity. Company No. 1485560, Charity No. 279756. Registered Office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL. VAT No. 402196875.

Supported by: Heritage Lottery Fund, Foundation for Sports and the Arts, The Garfield Weston Foundation, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Pilgrim Trust, Mercers’ Charitable Foundation, Aurelius Trust, The Aurelius Trust, and Friends of Dartington.