Gordon Craig on Movement and Dance

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) is particularly known among theatre practitioners and students of the theatre as a pioneer in what has been referred to as "the new movement in the theatre," commencing with his experimental productions in the early years of the twentieth century and his first book, The Art of the Theatre, published in 1905. Although labelled an impractical dreamer by his detractors, he successfully designed and produced a baker's dozen of plays and operas, ranging from the amateur Dido and Aeneas in 1900 to the renowned co-production with Constantin Stanislavsky of Hamlet at the Moscow Art Theatre; from the highly revolutionary production of Ibsen's The Vikings in 1903, under Ellen Terry's management with her appearing as Hiordis, to Ibsen's The Pretenders for The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in the '20's. However, his greatest influence on the modern theatre was due only in part, to the actual productions; far greater in importance were his visionary, prophetic approaches to a new theatre in which, for once, all components would be united under the creative artistic impulse of a single person, an approach taken for granted today. Although this is frequently thought to be his major contribution, there were, of course, many others because of Craig's extremely fertile and inventive imagination and devotion to theatre. One little known aspect of his prolific outpouring of books, articles, book reviews, letters, etc. is the considerable attention he paid to dance in its various manifestations. Gathered here are all the known published writings by Craig on movement and dance: articles, notes, editorials, book-reviews ranging over a wide variety of material from pieces concerning themselves with theory to "classic ballet" (Clerico, Cortesi, Guimard, Lambranzi, Taglioni, Pavlova, Nijinsky, Rubinstein); ethnic and folk dance from the Far East to England, to "modern dance" (Morris, Enters, Duncan, Fuller, St. Denis, Shawn and Dalcroze). Craig's bete-noire, Diaghilev's Russian Ballet, received considerable attention from him in many pieces for many years. In order to produce so much material Craig not only used his own name but resorted to an earlier subterfuge, that of pseudonyms. In his magazine, The Mask, we find that he used some sixty-six, not all represented here, however, because of the subject limitation. Included here are also a number of short, unsigned pieces which may or may not have served as yet another "mask" for Craig but are assigned to him by the editor to provide a more detailed picture. Omitted are a few articles on dance not written by Craig but by other, "real" people for The Mask. It is hoped this work will bring to the surface another facet of Craig's involvement in "total theatre."