Obituary:Willi Soukop

Michael Parkin [obituaries, 9 February] correctly emphasises the influence upon Willi Soukop's sculpture of the many artists he encountered at Dartington Hall during the late 1930s and after, writes Peter Brinson.

Within their general influence, however, remained one of which was paramount: dance. This was not only because the wife he met at Dartington was the beautiful dancer Simone Michelle. The whole ethos of Dartington was permeated by dance. It introduced through Kurt Jooss, Sigurd Leeder and Rudolf Laban an expressive style of movement quite new in Britain. The style taught by Jooss and Leeder influenced British theatre through the 1940s and was taught by Simone Michelle until 1990 first at Morley College, then at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance. That taught by Rudolf Laban dominated public education in dance until the 1970s.

Through his wife Willi absorbed these influences. They are revealed best, I think, in what he called harmony. It was present in his creativity and teaching, whatever the materials or theme. I noticed it in three exhibitions at the end of his life - a memorable retrospective at the Belgrave Gallery, in London, in 1991, then at the Woodlands Art Gallery, Blackheath, and in Cookham Church at a festival shared with the work of Stanley Spencer 18 months ago.

Most movingly it was present always in his house, garden and studio in north London. There dance and sculpture celebrated in visual harmony the achievement of a blissfully successful marriage over 40 years.