The Cornish Colony (1895 - 1920) was a group of artists, writers, actors, musicians and public figures attracted to the rural beauty of Cornish, New Hampshire. The colony developed into a social and innovative community of common interests and artistic values that included over 75 artists who shared a love of classical traditions in literature and art. Colony Members included: Augustus Saint-Gardens, Thomas Dewing, Charles Adams Platt, Louis Evan Shipman, Juliet Barrett Rublee, Maxfield Parrish, Lucia Fairchild Fuller, Percy MacKaye and Winston Churchill. This thesis will explore the theatrical productions in the colony based in collaboration between visual and theatrical artists in the Colony and how this collaboration extended to the townspeople. It will also explore how the Colony’s dramatics had an influence on the artistic growth of Cornish and the surrounding Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Dès la fin du XIXe siècle, la Lebensreform (« réforme de vie ») recouvre trois aspects qui sont la modernité (ère industrielle), la crise des valeurs et l'émergence de nouvelles pratiques artistiques, culturelles et sociales dans les pays de l'espace germanophone. La Lebensreform est une réponse aux ruptures de la modernité ; de nouvelles formes de vie collectives voient le jour. Les espaces d'accueil fondent leur propre mode de vie autour du programme d'une réconciliation avec la nature, en adoptant plusieurs réformes de la vie. Parallèlement, l'Inde artistique et spirituelle évolue et influence l'art moderne occidental, d'où l'apparition de passerelles transculturelles. Les artistes de la Lebensreform adoptent de nouveaux modes d'expression corporelle qui s'inspirent de l'art indien (mudrâs, rythme, etc.). Il s'agit dans notre thèse d'aborder l' « esthétique du performatif » ; l’art de la danse moderne devient un mode de communication à part entière, c'est-à-dire un langage non verbal, traité sous l'angle du concept de performatif. L'art moderne, qui se développe dans l'espace germanophone, conduit à une nouvelle quête, celle d'une recherche de sa propre identité à travers l'exploration du mouvement. / From the end of the 19th century, the Lebensreform (Life reform) covers three aspects which are modernity (industrial era), crisis in values, and the emergence of new artistic, cultural and social practices in German-speaking countries. The Lebensreform is a response to the break with modernity; new collective lifestyles are born. Hosting places build their own lifestyle around a program of renewals and reconciliation with nature, adopting several reforms of life. At the same time, artistic and spriritual India evolved and influenced modern Western art from whence grew cross-cultural gateways and bridges. Artists from the Lebensreform adopted new corporal forms of expression inspired by Indian art (mudrâs, rythm, etc.). This thesis concerns itself with the « esthetic performative » with the knowledge that the art of modern dancing, viewed from the angle of the performative concept, may be said to have emerged as a global mode of communication, and a non verbal language. Modern art as developed in German-speaking community has also led to a new quest, a search for our own identity through an exploratory movement.