The green table analysis
The Green Table
The Green Table is a ballet choreographed by Kurt Jooss. Jooss lived in Germany from 1901 to 1979 and choreographed the Green Table in 1932. He called this piece the ‘dance of death’ because of its focus on war. The Green Table is separated into nine scenes, each of them showing the different aspects of war and death. The first scene is titled ‘Gentlemen in Black’ and is a group of high-class men in suits and gloves arguing through dance over a large green table. Their flowy movements and gestures are very literal but the men never make contact with another. By the end of this scene, an agreement is obviously not an option for these men and as they shoot their guns into the air, I felt these men decided to go to war over this disagreement, but because they never make contact it shows that they don’t see the full impact (especially deaths) that this war will bring to the lower class people they represent. The second scene is a solo from the figure of death. The lighting is very dark and the intense, rhythmic music builds extreme tension. As he moved his feet to the beat, it gives a very creepy sense of time. The figure of death enters and exits into complete darkness on stage, which continues on for the entire piece. The third scene is the farewells, where the soldiers, guided by a man with a white flag, say goodbye to their women and follow death offstage symbolizing them going off to war. Throughout this entire scene, death stays downstage continuing his ‘keeping time’ with the music. Also in this scene, we are introduced to the profiteer who claps along with the beat death keeps and seems to be pleased by the sad scene going on. This scene is where I start to feel depressed and hopeless with human nature with the introduction of the profiteer I have to wonder how anyone can be happy with war tearing families apart. The fourth scene is the battle scene, the white flag from the farewells is no longer white, it looks stained with red to
The Green Table is a ballet choreographed by Kurt Jooss. Jooss lived in Germany from 1901 to 1979 and choreographed the Green Table in 1932. He called this piece the ‘dance of death’ because of its focus on war. The Green Table is separated into nine scenes, each of them showing the different aspects of war and death. The first scene is titled ‘Gentlemen in Black’ and is a group of high-class men in suits and gloves arguing through dance over a large green table. Their flowy movements and gestures are very literal but the men never make contact with another. By the end of this scene, an agreement is obviously not an option for these men and as they shoot their guns into the air, I felt these men decided to go to war over this disagreement, but because they never make contact it shows that they don’t see the full impact (especially deaths) that this war will bring to the lower class people they represent. The second scene is a solo from the figure of death. The lighting is very dark and the intense, rhythmic music builds extreme tension. As he moved his feet to the beat, it gives a very creepy sense of time. The figure of death enters and exits into complete darkness on stage, which continues on for the entire piece. The third scene is the farewells, where the soldiers, guided by a man with a white flag, say goodbye to their women and follow death offstage symbolizing them going off to war. Throughout this entire scene, death stays downstage continuing his ‘keeping time’ with the music. Also in this scene, we are introduced to the profiteer who claps along with the beat death keeps and seems to be pleased by the sad scene going on. This scene is where I start to feel depressed and hopeless with human nature with the introduction of the profiteer I have to wonder how anyone can be happy with war tearing families apart. The fourth scene is the battle scene, the white flag from the farewells is no longer white, it looks stained with red to