Dr Marion Kant

Research interests: 

Marion Kant’s research is focused on the history and aesthetics of the body in modern literature, art, musical theatre, film and dance and on the history of avant-garde arts. Her publications have addressed the evolution of German physical cultures and the emergence of nationalist ideologies. She has also written on German-Jewish assimilation, emigration and anti-fascist exile.

Recent research projects: 

Marion Kant is presently working on the relationship between German nationalism and movement concepts in the 19th and 20th centuries.  She is the editor of a six-volume Cultural History of Dance for Bloomsbury publishers.

Published works: 

Recent Publications:

Books

Ein westfälischer Jude in der preussischen Armee. Isaac Löwenstein aus Rietberg-Neuenkirchen und sein Tagebuch 1821-1823. Ed. R. Othengrafen. Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte 2021.

The critical writings of Artur Michel. Ed. Frank Manuel Peter/Gertje Andresen/Marion Kant. Biographical Essay by Marion Kant. Dance Archive Cologne. Frankfurt/M: Peter Lang 2015.

Cambridge Companion to Ballet. Editor & Author. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007.

Hitler's Dancers. German Modern Dance and the Third Reich. With Lilian Karina. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books 2003/2004.

Chapters/Articles

“Socialist Realism" at the Comic Opera Berlin. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2015.

Oscar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet (Paris, 1932) and Dance Discourse in Germany. Three Letters with Annotation and a Commentary.* Dance Research, Edinburgh University Press, (33,1), 2015, pp.16-30.

"The Russians in Berlin" – Russian Movement Culture of the 1920s and 1930s. Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York. February 2015.

Project Crossings: Los Angeles as a Site of German-American Crossings. University of Southern California, Los Angeles/German Historical Institute (GHI): Essay on Anti-fascist exile on the West Coast of the United States - theatre, music, dance in exile: “For the time being a row of palm trees is nothing but a nice façade”. March 2015.

„Was bleibt“? The dance avant-garde 1930-1960. In: New German Dance Studies. Ed. Susan Manning and Lucia Ruprecht. Champaign: University of Illinois Press 2012.

The moving body and the will to culture. European Review, Cambridge University Press, 19/04 [Autumn 2011]

Death and the Maiden. Mary Wigman and the Politics of Community in the Weimar Republic. Dance and Politics, ed. by Alexandra Kolb, Otago University Press 2010.

Practical Imperative: German Dance, Dancers, and Nazi Politics. in: Dance, Human Rights and Social Justice. Dignity in Motion. Ed. by Naomi Jackson and Tony Shapiro. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press 2008. pp. 5-19.

Joseph Lewitan and the Nazification of Dance in Germany. Chapter 17 in: The Art of Being Jewish in Modern Times. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2007. pp. 663-701.

Together with musicians Marshall Taylor and Samuel Hsu she has presented concerts commemorating Entartete Musik, music forbidden by the Nazis, in Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey and Salzburg.

Further Publications

Writing, Dancing and the Art of Embodiment. In: Wortkunst + Gestenkunst = Tonkunst.Das Verhältnis von Vokalem und Instrumentalem/The Relationship between the vocal and the instrumental in the arts. Ed. Hanns-Werner Heister, Hanjo Polk. Heidelberg: Springer Nature 2022 [forthcoming]

The Arts and the Nazis: Aesthetic Adventure, Political Terror and Art as a Weapon. Aesthetic Strategies for the Third Reich. In: The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, and Resilience. Ed. Michael Polgar & Suki John. Penn State/Texas University forthcoming 2022.

Then in What Sense Are You a Jewish Artist? Conflicts of the “Emancipated” Self’.* Chapter 13, in: Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance in Contemporary Perspective. Oxford University Press 2021.

Elektra: Schweigen und Tanzen – Leben und Sterben. Essay for the Elektra Production at the Hamburg State Opera 2020/2021.

Introduction to the Russian edition of the Diaries of Harry Graf Kessler. Moscow: Agraf 2017, 9 volumes.

Oscar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet (Paris, 1932) and Dance Discourse in Germany. Three Letters with Annotation and a Commentary.* Dance Research, Edinburgh University Press, (33,1), 2015.

Project Crossings: Los Angeles as a Site of German-American Crossings. University of Southern California, Los Angeles/German Historical Institute (GHI): “For the time being a row of palm trees is nothing but a nice façade”. On the Anti-Fascist Exile of Dance Artists to California. March 2015.

„Was bleibt“? The dance avant-garde 1930-1960. In: New German Dance Studies. Ed. Susan Manning and Lucia Ruprecht. Champaign: University of Illinois Press 2012.

The moving body and the will to culture. European Review, Cambridge University Press, 19/04 [Autumn 2011]

Together with musicians Marshall Taylor and Samuel Hsu she has presented concerts commemorating Entartete Musik, music forbidden by the Nazis, in Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey and Salzburg.