Susan Manning’s study of Mary Wigman (Ecstasy and the Demon, 1993) is one of the most important studies of the complex history of Modern Dance in Germany. Recently she worked, among other things as a dramaturge for Reggie Wilson, extensively on the transnational circulation of Modern Dance. In her lecture for the Julius-Hans-Spiegel-Zentrum, she investigates the ambivalent relationship of modern dancers such as Ruth St. Denis and Mary Wigman to non-western dance between orientalist appropriation and intercultural engagement.