Tanssia yli rajojen esittelee suomalaisen modernin tanssin kansainvälisiä juuria. Johanna Laakkonen käsittelee neljän taiteilijan työn kautta tanssia transnationaalisena ja verkostollisena toimintana maailmansotien välisenä aikana. Suomalaistanssijat Annsi Bergh, Mary Hougberg, Marianne Pontan ja Irja Hagfors vaikuttivat Helleraun koulussa Saksassa ja Itävallassa. Kirjassa seurataan heidän uransa vaiheita Euroopan tanssikeskuksiin ja kiertueille Pohjois-Amerikkaan. Lukijalle avautuu näkymä tanssijan työhön ennen toista maailmansotaa mutta myös kansallissosialismin ja modernin tanssin ongelmalliseen suhteeseen 1930-luvun Saksassa.

Kirjassa kuvataan myös Euroopan yhdeksi johtavaksi tanssi- ja liikuntakouluksi kasvaneen Helleraun koulun vaiheita sekä kerrotaan suomalaisten merkittävästä työstä koulun opettajina ja sen tanssiryhmän keskeisinä jäseninä. Teksti pohjautuu ainutlaatuiseen ja osin aiemmin julkaisemattomaan arkistoaineistoon valokuvineen.

Kirja on suunnattu kaikille tanssista ja suomalaisen naisvoimistelun vaiheista kiinnostuneille. Se tarjoaa uutta tietoa myös teatterin, tanssin ja musiikin välisistä yhteyksistä ja suomalaisten kulttuurisuhteista saksankieliseen Eurooppaan.

Dancing across borders. Transnational networks of early modern dance.

By exploring the career of four Finnish dancers, dance teachers and students of the Hellerau school in Dresden and Laxenburg (originally known as Bildungsanstalt Emile Jaques-Dalcroze/ Bildungsanstalt für Musik und Rhythmus), the writer unveils an unknown chapter of transnational dance history. The book opens up new perspectives on dancers’ work and their border crossings between the World Wars, as it explores the transnational working culture of European modern dance in the 1920s and 1930s. The text also follows Hellerau’s development into one of the most successful schools of rhythmics, physical education and dance in Central Europe after the first World War.

Using Pascale Casanova’s idea of international literary space and theoretical discussions on transnationalism, the writer suggests that a transnational dance space exists whose boundaries, power relations and artistic processes cannot be confined within traditional national and political borders. Therefore, dance historiography would also gain from a transnational approach. Borrowing Norbert Elias’ concept of figuration, the writer explores the networks between dancers and other performing artists, and shows how the networks fostered the transnationalism of physical education and modern dance.

Mary Hougberg (1898–1964), Annsi Bergh (1900–1932) and Marianne Pontan (1901–1973) studied in Hellerau-Dresden in the early 1920s. Pontan directed the school’s physical education program until 1930. Bergh and Hougberg were also appointed as teachers in Dresden, and together with the dancers Valeria Kratina and Rosalia Chladek, they were the core members of the Tanzgruppe Kratina Hellerau-Dresden (Laxenburg) until they left the school in the late 1920s.

It is shown how the Dalcrozian approach was developed to meet the needs of modern physical education and dance training. The analysis of Tanzgruppe Kratina’s repertoire and its reception, including dance pantomimes and grotesques, broaden the rather narrow understanding of the Hellerau style. The company’s importance lay in its attempt to rework the Dalcrozian approach to better correspond with modern dance as a performing art form.

Journeying through Irja Hagfors’ work as a theatre dancer and touring freelancer, the writer discusses another blind spot in dance history, namely dancers’ work in drama theatres and operas. Hagfors’ work in Germany and Switzerland, and her tours to North America with Harald Kreutzberg and Trudi Schoop are discussed and placed in the wider cultural and political context of the 1930s. Through Hagfors’ work it is shown how the National Socialist’s rise to power transformed and weakened the transnational character of European modern dance.

In Finland, Bergh, Hougberg, Hagfors and Pontan linked female physical education and emerging modern dance with ongoing transnational discussions on the body, dancers’ training, Dalcrozian rhythmics and dance as a performing art form.