The Museum of Modern Art Presents US Premiere of DANCE FOR NOTHING, 1/15

By: Jan. 03, 2014
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The Museum of Modern Art presents the US Premiere of DANCE FOR NOTHING, January 15 and 16, 2014. Run time: 80 minutes (including a discussion with the audience) at the Museum of Modern Art, Werner and Elaine Danheisser Gallery, fourth floor, 11 West 53 Street* / tickets $12.

Single Tickets

"I had a problem with insomnia so I thought I should empty my head. First, empty dance. Then, empty head."

Thus begins Eszter Salamon's Dance for Nothing, a performance that uses John Cage's extraordinary experimental work Lecture on Nothing (c. 1949-50) as a spoken, rhythmic score.

Lecture on Nothing, a prose work, was composed on the page like a piece of music, replete with moments of pause, repetition, and a complex time scheme. Salamon recites the written text from memory, her movements becoming a parallel action, introducing different-and perhaps more contemporary-moods and temporalities. Over the course of the piece, Cage's words and Salamon's gestures intersect and diverge, depending on the connotative juxtapositions, along with each viewer's predispositions and reaction. The two elements are meant to be interpreted independently, as Salamon explains: "The dance should be autonomous and never become an illustration or a commentary on the text."

*Guests enter through the film entrance at 11 W 53 Street

Organized by Ana Janevski, Associate Curator, with Leora Morinis, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art.

Coproduction: DANCE 2010, 12.Internationales Festival des zeitgenössischen Tanzes (Munich), Festival Next (Valenciennes), Far - Festival des arts vivants (Nyon), TanzWerkstatt Berlin/Tanz Im August. Supported by the National Performance Network with funding provided by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Botschaft (Berlin)

Supported by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) International Guest Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag.



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