Suzanne Perrottet (1889 – 1983) was a pupil of the
composer and teacher Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865 to 1950). Together with Rudolf
von Laban (1879 – 1958) and Mary Wigman (1886 – 1973) she is regarded as one of
the founders of the modern expressive dance and modernizer of dance education.
From 1917 to 1919 Suzanne Perrottet was in contact with the Dada movement and
appeared as musician in various events in the «Galerie Dada» and the
«Kaufleuten». During this time she lived and worked with Rudolf von Laban, who
built up the «Labangarten – School of Arts Movement» in Hombrechtikon and the
«Labanschule» in Zurich. When Rudolf von Laban went to Germany, Suzanne
Perrottet continued the «Labanschule» in Zurich as «Bewegungsschule Suzanne
Perrottet». Until well into old age, she worked in Zurich as a teacher of dance
and musical-rhythmic movement education.
***
Suzanne Perrottet (1889–1983) grew up in Geneva,
studied rhythmics with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and taught in Hellerau, where Mary
Wigman was one of her pupils. In 1912 , she met the dancer, choreographer, and
theorist Rudolf von Laban, moved with him to the Monte Verità artists’ colony
near Ascona and later to Zurich, where she performed at the Dada soirées. The
summer of 1913 was a great turning point on Monte Verità! Along with Laban,
Wigman, and others, Perrottet discovered the expressive power of natural
movements and gestures, of sounds and words. It was the birth of modern dance.
Everyone was to benefit from the spirit of natural movement; the goal wasto
liberate body and mind.
In 1920 Perrottet
founded a school in Zürich. There she not only taught dancers, actors, children,
and adults, including the physically and mentally impaired, but also devoted
herself to intense, ongoing research. To compensate the lack of literature
available in this new field, she started cutting pictures of movements,
gestures, and physical expressions out of magazines. In the course of 60 years,
she amassed an archive of over 10,000 pictures, which she classified by
categories. Suzanne Perrottet continued working until she was 89 years old.
After she died, her banana boxes of clippings were forgotten. Rediscovered in
this book, they give an insight into a unique collection—a visual archive of
movement.
