Anna-Lena Wieser
Abstract
American and African-American social and club dances emerged in the first half of the 20th century in an immense variety of genres and styles. The great Hollywood film musicals and musical shorts of the jazz and swing era already document a wealth of artistic forms of expression. The dancer, filmmaker and dance journalist Mura Dehn (1902–1987) demonstrates, through her film series *The Spirit Moves: A History of Black Social Dance on Film*, what was being performed in the clubs and ballrooms of New York, away from the US film industry. The aim of this dissertation is a cultural-historical analysis of Mura Dehn’s film material, focusing on staging and movement. The focus is on the aesthetics, development, evolution and transformation of the dances depicted, as well as their fusions with forms of expression from Broadway and Hollywood. However, the examination of Mura Dehn’s films and estate is not only significant in terms of analysing dance forms and styles, but is also essential for gaining an overview of Dehn’s artistic work as a filmmaker. Consequently, the second focus of this project lies in situating Mura Dehn’s oeuvre within the history of music and dance. To what extent do Eurocentric perspectives shape the style of the film series and Mura Dehn’s view of the dancing bodies? In this context, the research material must also be critically examined. The doctoral thesis project thus navigates the tension between, on the one hand, uncovering artistic transfers and interconnections and, on the other, revealing culturally embedded systems of order.
