Alexandra Kolb
Biographic Data
| ID | 131608 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexandra Kolb |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexandra |
| FAMILY NAME | Kolb |
| SIGNATURE | KOLB A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Roehampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3480-9428 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Whimsical Inflatable
This article analyses pneumatic (inflatable) objects as used in the work of four contemporary European artists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds: choreographers Adrienne Hart and Gabriella Engdahl, and visual artists Michael Shaw and Bambí Benkö. Deployed across deconsecrated churches, swimming pools, theatres, galleries and streets, these works demonstrate a broad spectrum of engagement with inflatables, ranging from formalist to existential…
On yellowface, colonialism and cultural appreciation
Carnival in Germany has produced distinctive traditions that imagine and perform ‘Chineseness’, most prominently in Bavarian Dietfurt’s ‘Chinese Carnival’ and Cologne’s carnival association Ihrefelder Chinese. Drawing on costumes, paper lanterns, dragons, invented names, and in Dietfurt’s case, even a symbolic emperor – until recently accompanied in both traditions by yellowfacing – these festivals have been granted recognition as intangible cult…
Dances of Breath
This article takes American dance artist Martha Graham as a case study to advance the innovative argument that breathing in modern dance can be illuminated though the lens of vitalism: a set of philosophical and scientific views about life with both political and aesthetic implications. Graham resignified the meaning of breath, which came to define corporeal rhythm and movement, by recalibrating its philosophical, psychoanalytic and political sta…
‘Brexit put us in the Fridge, Covid in the Freezer’
This article investigates how Covid-19 and Brexit have impacted the practices, finances and wellbeing of UK dance professionals, drawing on first-hand data collected in early 2021 from interviews, questionnaires and a panel discussion. The testimonies of freelance practitioners from different backgrounds, as well as key stakeholders from national institutions and organisations employing or otherwise interacting with freelancers, present bottom-up…
Do’s, Don’ts, and the Rhythms of the Urban Everyday
Rimini Protokoll’s Do’s and Don’ts (2018) takes spectators on tours through cities in a disused truck to observe contemporary urban life. Commentary from nonprofessional (yet “expert”) performers and video interludes dissect and challenge the rules and norms of the 21st-century metropolis. Lucinda Childs’s 1964 Street Dance frames and historically contextualizes the discussion of performance “in” and “of” the city
Choreography in the Age of Post-Privacy
This article situates choreography within topical debates on post-privacy, critically interrogating a trend toward the exposure of intimate life and sexuality in performance. A scene from Pina Bausch’s Window Washer (1997), shedding light on domestic violence and the sexualized female body, is related to the feminist assertion that “the personal is political.” Michael Parmenter’s A Long Undressing (1995), a piece about the artist’s identity as a …
Akram Khan, Lloyd Newson, and the Challenges of British Multiculturalism
In a climate riven by national insecurities, anti-immigration movements and competing visions of a post-Brexit future, this paper examines the contentious space multiculturalism has inhabited in 21 st -century British choreography. It analyses acclaimed works by Akram Khan and Lloyd Newson to explore starkly differing perspectives on cultural diversity in the UK. Khan's contribution to the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Abide with Me) emp…
Jenn Joy, The Choreographic
Book review of Jenn Joy, The Choreographic, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2014, 248 pp. Paper $17.95. ISBN: 9780262526357
Wigman's Witches
This article investigates the three versions of Mary Wigman's Hexentanz ( Witch Dance ) in the context of the different political regimes in which they were performed. The changing cultural milieus shaped—through Wigman's imagination if not necessarily consciously—the works' forms and iconographies. The witch figure relates to preindustrial, pre-Christian Germanic identity and sparked considerable interest among völkisch and indeed Nazi groups. W…
Current Trends in Contemporary Choreography
Can contemporary choreography claim to challenge the societal status quo by producing liberatory or transgressive work, or has it rather become enshrined in the logic of capitalism and establishment culture? This paper looks critically at twenty-first-century participatory, collaborative modes of performance to investigate how their corresponding aesthetic choices and working methods reflect (often implicit) political stances, such as manifestati…
The Migration and Globalization of Schuhplattler Dance
This paper analyses diasporic versions of Schuhplattler (slap dance), a German-Austrian folk dance, as a community activity among German and Austrian émigrés. It offers two case studies: one focusing on the anti-Nazi emigrant youth organization 'Young Austria' in the late 1930s, the other on the practice and politics of Schuhplattler dancing by German émigrés to the USA in the late 2000s. Discussions address how the dance has been deployed to ser…
There was never anythin' like this!!!' Valeska Gert's Performances in the Context of Weimar Culture
This paper explores Valeska Gert's contributions to dance against the backdrop of Weimar Germany. The first section considers the themes of her choreographies. Eschewing both idealism and abstraction, her work presented a gritty account of the realities of contemporary quotidian life, often featuring outcasts from bourgeois society. It also reflected a growing German interest in aspects of American culture, including sport and multi-ethnicity. Wh…
Current Trends in Contemporary Choreography
Can contemporary choreography claim to challenge the societal status quo by producing liberatory or transgressive work, or has it rather become enshrined in the logic of capitalism and establishment culture? This paper looks critically at twenty-first-century participatory, collaborative modes of performance to investigate how their corresponding aesthetic choices and working methods reflect (often implicit) political stances, such as manifestati…
Wigman's Witches
This article investigates the three versions of Mary Wigman's Hexentanz ( Witch Dance ) in the context of the different political regimes in which they were performed. The changing cultural milieus shaped—through Wigman's imagination if not necessarily consciously—the works' forms and iconographies. The witch figure relates to preindustrial, pre-Christian Germanic identity and sparked considerable interest among völkisch and indeed Nazi groups. W…
The Migration and Globalization of Schuhplattler Dance
This paper analyses diasporic versions of Schuhplattler (slap dance), a German-Austrian folk dance, as a community activity among German and Austrian émigrés. It offers two case studies: one focusing on the anti-Nazi emigrant youth organization 'Young Austria' in the late 1930s, the other on the practice and politics of Schuhplattler dancing by German émigrés to the USA in the late 2000s. Discussions address how the dance has been deployed to ser…
There was never anythin' like this!!!' Valeska Gert's Performances in the Context of Weimar Culture
This paper explores Valeska Gert's contributions to dance against the backdrop of Weimar Germany. The first section considers the themes of her choreographies. Eschewing both idealism and abstraction, her work presented a gritty account of the realities of contemporary quotidian life, often featuring outcasts from bourgeois society. It also reflected a growing German interest in aspects of American culture, including sport and multi-ethnicity. Wh…
Current Trends in Contemporary Choreography
Can contemporary choreography claim to challenge the societal status quo by producing liberatory or transgressive work, or has it rather become enshrined in the logic of capitalism and establishment culture? This paper looks critically at twenty-first-century participatory, collaborative modes of performance to investigate how their corresponding aesthetic choices and working methods reflect (often implicit) political stances, such as manifestati…
The Migration and Globalization of Schuhplattler Dance
This paper analyses diasporic versions of Schuhplattler (slap dance), a German-Austrian folk dance, as a community activity among German and Austrian émigrés. It offers two case studies: one focusing on the anti-Nazi emigrant youth organization 'Young Austria' in the late 1930s, the other on the practice and politics of Schuhplattler dancing by German émigrés to the USA in the late 2000s. Discussions address how the dance has been deployed to ser…
Jenn Joy, The Choreographic
Book review of Jenn Joy, The Choreographic, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2014, 248 pp. Paper $17.95. ISBN: 9780262526357
Wigman's Witches
This article investigates the three versions of Mary Wigman's Hexentanz ( Witch Dance ) in the context of the different political regimes in which they were performed. The changing cultural milieus shaped—through Wigman's imagination if not necessarily consciously—the works' forms and iconographies. The witch figure relates to preindustrial, pre-Christian Germanic identity and sparked considerable interest among völkisch and indeed Nazi groups. W…
Akram Khan, Lloyd Newson, and the Challenges of British Multiculturalism
In a climate riven by national insecurities, anti-immigration movements and competing visions of a post-Brexit future, this paper examines the contentious space multiculturalism has inhabited in 21 st -century British choreography. It analyses acclaimed works by Akram Khan and Lloyd Newson to explore starkly differing perspectives on cultural diversity in the UK. Khan's contribution to the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Abide with Me) emp…
Choreography in the Age of Post-Privacy
This article situates choreography within topical debates on post-privacy, critically interrogating a trend toward the exposure of intimate life and sexuality in performance. A scene from Pina Bausch’s Window Washer (1997), shedding light on domestic violence and the sexualized female body, is related to the feminist assertion that “the personal is political.” Michael Parmenter’s A Long Undressing (1995), a piece about the artist’s identity as a …
Do’s, Don’ts, and the Rhythms of the Urban Everyday
Rimini Protokoll’s Do’s and Don’ts (2018) takes spectators on tours through cities in a disused truck to observe contemporary urban life. Commentary from nonprofessional (yet “expert”) performers and video interludes dissect and challenge the rules and norms of the 21st-century metropolis. Lucinda Childs’s 1964 Street Dance frames and historically contextualizes the discussion of performance “in” and “of” the city
‘Brexit put us in the Fridge, Covid in the Freezer’
This article investigates how Covid-19 and Brexit have impacted the practices, finances and wellbeing of UK dance professionals, drawing on first-hand data collected in early 2021 from interviews, questionnaires and a panel discussion. The testimonies of freelance practitioners from different backgrounds, as well as key stakeholders from national institutions and organisations employing or otherwise interacting with freelancers, present bottom-up…
Dances of Breath
This article takes American dance artist Martha Graham as a case study to advance the innovative argument that breathing in modern dance can be illuminated though the lens of vitalism: a set of philosophical and scientific views about life with both political and aesthetic implications. Graham resignified the meaning of breath, which came to define corporeal rhythm and movement, by recalibrating its philosophical, psychoanalytic and political sta…
The Whimsical Inflatable
This article analyses pneumatic (inflatable) objects as used in the work of four contemporary European artists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds: choreographers Adrienne Hart and Gabriella Engdahl, and visual artists Michael Shaw and Bambí Benkö. Deployed across deconsecrated churches, swimming pools, theatres, galleries and streets, these works demonstrate a broad spectrum of engagement with inflatables, ranging from formalist to existential…
On yellowface, colonialism and cultural appreciation
Carnival in Germany has produced distinctive traditions that imagine and perform ‘Chineseness’, most prominently in Bavarian Dietfurt’s ‘Chinese Carnival’ and Cologne’s carnival association Ihrefelder Chinese. Drawing on costumes, paper lanterns, dragons, invented names, and in Dietfurt’s case, even a symbolic emperor – until recently accompanied in both traditions by yellowfacing – these festivals have been granted recognition as intangible cult…
Diversity and Impact of Dance (11 works) · Art (9 works) · Dance (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Aesthetics (6 works) · History (6 works) · Visual arts (6 works)