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"Choreographing Absence: Ausdruckstanz, Exile, and the Holocaust in the Work of Pola Nirenska" Featuring Dr. Karen Mozingo

Dr. Karen Mozingo
November 17, 2015
4:00PM - 5:15PM
Hagerty Hall 50

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Add to Calendar 2015-11-17 16:00:00 2015-11-17 17:15:00 "Choreographing Absence: Ausdruckstanz, Exile, and the Holocaust in the Work of Pola Nirenska" Featuring Dr. Karen Mozingo After Hitler’s rise to power forced her dismissal as a Jewish dancer from the Mary Wigman school and company in Dresden, Germany, Polish dancer Pola Nirenska emigrated to London in 1935, where she studied with German dance exiles, Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder. In 1949, she emigrated again to the United States, marrying former Polish underground fighter Jan Karski, and becoming one of the founding dance pioneers in the Washington, D.C. dance community. Throughout her exile years, Nirenska’s artistic strategies situated her at a unique juncture between several dialectics within the American modern dance community: Ausdruckstanz versus modern dance, national identity versus transnational identity, dance versus theatre, improvisational techniques versus codified techniques, and popular versus concert dance. Nirenska’s works pushed the boundaries of nationalist definitions of dance and subverted the representations of race and gender that were integral to dance traditions in Poland, Germany, England, and the United States. This study explores how Nirenska's dances reconnected her to the international community of Holocaust survivors and Polish communities where she relocated, serving as a site for communal memory that transcended national borders.Karen Mozingo's research interests include performance studies, dance theatre, and feminist theory. She has received both national and international support, including fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Historical Institute, and The Ohio State University. She has presented her research at annual conferences of Congress on Research in Dance, Society of Dance History Scholars, National Dance Education Organization, and the International Council of Kinetography Laban.  Her articles have been published in Dance Research Journal and the Journal of Dance Education. During the past ten years, she has taught performance studies, theatre, and dance courses at SUNY Potsdam, The Ohio State University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Case Western Reserve University, and Stivers School for the Arts. Hagerty Hall 50 Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies cseees@osu.edu America/New_York public

After Hitler’s rise to power forced her dismissal as a Jewish dancer from the Mary Wigman school and company in Dresden, Germany, Polish dancer Pola Nirenska emigrated to London in 1935, where she studied with German dance exiles, Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder. In 1949, she emigrated again to the United States, marrying former Polish underground fighter Jan Karski, and becoming one of the founding dance pioneers in the Washington, D.C. dance community. Throughout her exile years, Nirenska’s artistic strategies situated her at a unique juncture between several dialectics within the American modern dance community: Ausdruckstanz versus modern dance, national identity versus transnational identity, dance versus theatre, improvisational techniques versus codified techniques, and popular versus concert dance. Nirenska’s works pushed the boundaries of nationalist definitions of dance and subverted the representations of race and gender that were integral to dance traditions in Poland, Germany, England, and the United States. This study explores how Nirenska's dances reconnected her to the international community of Holocaust survivors and Polish communities where she relocated, serving as a site for communal memory that transcended national borders.

Karen Mozingo's research interests include performance studies, dance theatre, and feminist theory. She has received both national and international support, including fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Historical Institute, and The Ohio State University. She has presented her research at annual conferences of Congress on Research in Dance, Society of Dance History Scholars, National Dance Education Organization, and the International Council of Kinetography Laban.  Her articles have been published in Dance Research Journal and the Journal of Dance Education. During the past ten years, she has taught performance studies, theatre, and dance courses at SUNY Potsdam, The Ohio State University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Case Western Reserve University, and Stivers School for the Arts.