The 26 January 1944 saw the premiere of Kurt Jooss' ballet Pandora in the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. The choreographer, who had emigrated in 1933, continued with the socially critical productions that had seen his greatest successes in the 1930s such as Der grüne Tisch [The Green Table] (1932), The Mirror, 1935 and Chronica (1939). Referencing the culture of ancient mythology, Jooss formulated a humanistic credo in this work that is expressed in the rejection of materialistic promises and the search for spiritual truth. The greedily opened Pandora's box that allows all that is unholy to enter the world becomes a symbol for the terror of World War II. The demonic evil can only be subdued at the end by the vitality of youth and cool-headed wisdom.

Pandora saw Kurt Jooss work yet again with the German stage designer Hein Heckroth, with whom he had been working professionally since 1924. Heckroth took up exile in France in 1935 before joining up with Ballets Jooss in the English town of Dartington and later became world-famous for the Oscar-winning sets of the dance film The Red Shoes which was filmed in London in 1948.

This sketch for Jooss’ ballet shows a fantasy demon figure, whose grotesque face is hidden by a fearful masked helmet.