#kurt jooss

The Green Table, by Kurt Jooss, preformed by the Joffrey Ballet in ‘67

the audio’s pretty faint, but it’s the full production! 

Originally choreographed in 1932, the Joffrey talents have already said how proud they are to present this work in honor of its 80th Anniversary.

The Joffrey Ballet was the first American company to dance “The Green Table” as a company premiere in 1967. Subtitled “A Dance of Death in Eight Scenes” and set to music by Frederick A. Cohen, “The Green Table” is a commentary on the futility of war and the horrors it causes.

The Character of Death in The Green Table: Photo by Roger Wood, Photographer. Choreography by Kurt Jooss. Photo from 1945. NYPL Digital Gallery

It opens with a group of diplomats (the “Gentlemen in Black”) having a discussion around a rectangular table covered with a green cloth. They end up pulling guns from their pockets and shooting in the air, thus symbolizing the declaration of war. The next six scenes portray different aspects of wartime: the separation from loved ones in The Farewells, war itself in The Battle and The Partisan, loneliness and misery in The Refugees, the emotional void and forced entertainment in The Brothel, and, finally, the psychologically beaten and wounded survivors in The Aftermath.

We can’t fight here, this is the War Room!

First nearly-two-minutes of The Green Table, by the Chicago Joffrey