Whoever Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Kurt Jooss, Public Subsidy, and Private Patronage

Abstract

This article discusses how subsidy and patronage from German municipalities, private individuals, and British organisations supported Kurt Jooss's artistic output enabling him to create new work, to have high production values, and to present and disseminate his work in Britain, across Europe, the USA and South America. Working chronologically, consideration is given to how each sponsor and benefactor impacted on Jooss's work, particularly his activities as a theatre/opera director and as a choreographer for Baroque operas and oratorios. It is concluded that without such deliberate sponsorship Jooss's work would have been severely restricted.

Drums Sound in Hackensack: Agnes de Mille and the Jooss Ballet

“…The Dartington Trust sought to make the company and the Jooss-Leeder School pay for themselves but the substantial funds of the trust, and the private wealth of Dorothy Elmhirst from which she frequently supported Jooss and his family, cushioned any major expenditure. 17 What would de Mille have given for such support? One of her problems, as she saw it, was that people often thought she had similar support from the de Mille family when, from her perspective, this was not the case: She had limited financial support from her mother but not from her father or uncle, the film director Cecil B. de Mille.…”