ABSTRACT
The chapter offers fresh perspectives on Rubbra’s often experimental work with dancers during the 1930s. Three professional collaborations are explored: with the Indian dancer Menaka; with Margaret Barr and her Dance-Drama Group at Dartington; culminating in 1938 in a project with the stage designer Peter Goffin to create the scenario, music and stage design for a complete ballet, Prism, Op. 48. Newly discovered manuscripts allow discussion of Rubbra’s music for Menaka’s dance Usha and Barr’s The Three Sisters, alongside aspects of their staging and scenarios. Various spiritual threads run through Rubbra’s work with dancers. Dance itself, an emergent art-form in the 1930s, was seen as having the power to unite body, soul and spirit. Left-wing political ideals, relating to Indian nationalism in Menaka’s work, and to socialism and pacifism in Barr’s dance-dramas, combine with spiritual imagery to conjure up a past ‘golden age’ or to convey a utopian message. The unifying notion of Gesamtkunstwerk underpins the Dartington dance-dramas and Rubbra’s and Goffin’s own ballet. In Prism, scenario, stage design and music combine in an abstract ballet demonstrating its creators’ interest in the evolution of consciousness and esoteric thought. Its multimodal nature lends itself to analysis using Conceptual Integration Networks.
