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The Green Table, By Kurt Jooss And Composed By Fritz A. Cohen Essay

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“The Green Table,” choreographed by Kurt Jooss and composed by Fritz A. Cohen, first premiered in Paris, France and won first place in the Paris choreographic competition held by the International Archives of the Dance in early July of 1932 (Martin 155). Kurt Jooss (1901—1979) was a German choreographer and dancer, as well as quite the visionary for his time. Fritz A. Cohen (1904-1967) was a German composer, who worked closely with Jooss to create this anti-war message-driven piece. The ballet “Der Grüne Tisch,” subtitled, “A Tatentanz,” achieved praise not only in Paris and Germany, but also Amsterdam, Brussels, London, and America (Martin 155). As Martin sums up, “In eight loosely connected scenes…it pictures the bitter futility of war” (Martin 155). In other words, Jooss explores the ineffectiveness of violence through a series of scenes depicting battle and woe. The New York stock market crash in 1929 sparked a worldwide economic crisis (“Hitler Comes to Power”). By June of 1932, six million people were unemployed in Germany and the economic distress led to a rise in the support for the Nazi party; consequently, the Nazi party won the votes of almost 40 percent of the electorate in the German parliament elections of July 1932 (“Hitler Comes to Power”). However, by November of 1932, the Nazi party lost two million votes from the previous July (“Hitler Comes to Power”). Adolf Hitler formed an alliance with the conservatives and after negotiating for months, Paul von

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