The New York Public Library Presents RADICAL BODIES, 5/24
By: Molly Tracy Apr. 20, 2017
In August 1960, the choreographer Anna Halprin taught an experimental workshop attended by Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer on her dance deck on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, north of San Francisco. Within two years, Forti's conceptually forceful dance constructions premiered in Yoko Ono's loft and Rainer cofounded the ground-breaking Judson Dance Theater in New York. Radical Bodies: Anna Halprin, Simone Forti, Yvonne Rainer in California and New York, 1955-1972, a new exhibition opening at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center on May 24, explores how Halprin and subsequently, Forti and Rainer opened the way to a radicalized vision for the body in dance and the visual arts that continues to influence choreographers and visual artists globally. The free exhibition is on display in the Library's Vincent Astor Gallery through September 16, 2017.
Anna Halprin's role in the development of postmodern dance is well-known in California, but less recognized in the New York dance world. The exhibition seeks to rebalance this perception, and focuses on the cross-pollination in the three women's careers and the dance and art communities more broadly. Halprin, who pioneered task-based improvisation, had a strong influence on key figures in postmodern dance including Forti and Rainer, as well as Trisha Brown, Meredith Monk and many others: Ideas about improvisation, pedestrian movement, the ordinary body in public places, vocalization, the use of props, and dance as an act of citizenship can be traced back to her early work. Beginning at the same point in 1960, Halprin, Forti, and Rainer-all Californians with Jewish roots-opened the way to a radicalized vision for dance that manifested differently on the two coasts, during an intense period of little more than a decade.
Originated by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, and co-curated by Ninotchka D. Bennahum (Professor of Theater and Dance, UCSB), Wendy Perron (author, Through the Eyes of a Dancer and former Editor-in-Chief, Dance Magazine) and Bruce Robertson (Professor of Art History and Director of the Art, Design and Architecture Museum, UCSB), Radical Bodies consists of more than 150 photographs, videos and original scores and drawings by Halprin, Forti and Rainer. Photographers include Imogen Cunningham, Peter Moore, George Brecht, and many of the photographs are drawn from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division's collections.
As Bennahum notes: "Each of these female artists has engendered a radical, feminist approach to the dancing body as an act of ethical artistry and citizenship."
For Perron, "Working on this project was a revelation not only of Anna Halprin's influence, but also of Simone Forti's role as a bridge between the two coasts."
"Anna, Simone, and Yvonne changed the way we think about dance and art in New York, California and far beyond either coast," said Jacqueline Z. Davis, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The Library for the Performing Arts. "The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is delighted to present Radical Bodies and to celebrate the careers of these three remarkable women."
A fully illustrated 192-page exhibition catalogue is available from University of California Press, with essays by Bennahum, Perron and Robertson, as well as brief memoirs by John Rockwell (former music and dance critic of The New York Times) and the composer Morton Subotnick, and poignant letters that Forti wrote to Halprin in 1960-61.
In addition to a variety of public programs related to the exhibition, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will also offer a robust educational program in collaboration with New York City public school dance teachers, dance students from Hunter College and dance students from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Radical Bodies Public Programs
Tuesday, May 25 @ 6 PM
Radical Dance Artists in the 60s and the 80s: A Conversation with Yvonne Rainer and Lucy Sexton
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE - Advance registration recommended
To mark the opening of the exhibition, Yvonne Rainer and Lucy Sexton come to the Library to discuss their careers in dance. In the 1960s, Rainer was a leader in the dance avant-garde through the rule-breaking collaborative, Judson Dance Theater. In the 1980s and '90s, DANCENOISE, Lucy Sexton's performance art duo with Anne Iobst, rocked the New York club scene with transgressive, socially conscious acts of precisely aimed mayhem. With the help of performance clips, archival display, and mutual curiosity, Rainer and Sexton will question each other about how their separate generations transformed the New York dance and performance scene.
Wednesday, May 31 @ 3 PM
Performance of Huddle and Slant Board
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
Two of Forti's 1961 "dance constructions," Huddle and Slant Board could be described as moving sculptures. Huddle involves six to nine people forming a mound over which each person climbs. Slant Board involves three people grappling with ropes on a 45-degree incline. These are seminal performance works that have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art.
Wednesday, May 31 @ 8 PM
Radical Bodies: Works by Anna Halprin, Simone Forti, and Yvonne Rainer
Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse
695 Park Ave
FREE - Advance registration required
https://community.hunter.cuny.edu/radical_bodies
An evening of works by Anna Halprin, Simone Forti, and Yvonne Rainer performed by the UCSB Dance Company. The program, which commemorates 50 years since the legendary performance of Parades and Changes at Hunter, includes a new version of "The Paper Dance" from Halprin's Parades and Changes, Chair Pillow by Yvonne Rainer, José Limón's Isadora Dances, and guest artist Simone Forti. A post-performance panel moderated by Wendy Perron includes Forti as well as Charles Reinhart and Alice Teirstein, both of whom attended the famous 1967 performance.
Friday, June 2 @ 12 PM
Radical on Tape: Screening the Work of Anna Halprin
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
Exhibition co-curator Ninotchka D. Bennahum will host an afternoon of screenings, featuring three films by Anna Halprin: Parades & Changes (1966, 37 mins.); Breath Made Visible (2010, 82 mins.); and Ann, A Portrait (1971, 20 mins.)
Saturday, June 3 @ 11 AM, 1 PM and 3 PM
Radical Thinking: Educational Experiences in the Vincent Astor Gallery
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
Join us for group orientations and discussions of Radical Bodies intended for high school students and adults. Staff educators will lead the tours at 11 AM and 3 PM. At 1 PM, Wendy Perron will lead the discussion, answer questions about these remarkable women, and give insights into the dance and art worlds of the 1960s.
Sunday, June 4 @ 6 PM
An Evening with Simone Forti, K. J. Holmes, and Daniel Lepkoff
Sundays on Broadway
537 Broadway
FREE
Simone Forti will dance a solo, to be followed by her close associates K.J. Holmes and Daniel Lepkoff. Wendy Perron moderates a discussion about Forti's influence.
June 22-July 1
SlowDancing/TrioA
Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church
131 East 10th St.
FREE
http://www.danspaceproject.org/calendar/slowdancingtrioa/
SlowDancing/TrioA is a new video installation by artist David Michalek, in collaboration with choreographer Yvonne Rainer. It seeks to create an unusual motion picture record of Rainer's iconic dance-work, Trio A (1966). Trio A has become an emblem of Rainer's work of the 1960s, wherein she famously transformed the dancing body-stripped it of special techniques and star status, traded its costumes and leotards for T-shirts and sneakers. Trio A presents a steady stream of unique motions performed without a pause. To create SlowDancing/TrioA, the roughly five-minute dance has been divided into 46 seven-second sections. Yvonne Rainer and Raindears company member Pat Catterson, taught a diverse cast 46 dancers to perform the parts in sequence on a specially-constructed set designed for high-speed, high-definition filming. The end result, to be screened inside of Danspace Project's sanctuary, will feature a single film that shows the whole of Trio A, from start to finish, performed by 46 different people, spanning 90 minutes or more.
Thursday, June 29 @ 6 PM
Live Taping of Randy Cohen's Person Place Thing with Yvonne Rainer
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE - Advance registration recommended
Nypl.org/lpa
Person Place Thing is an interview show on the WAMC network hosted by Randy Cohen based on this idea: that people are particularly engaging when they speak not directly about themselves but about something they care about. Tonight's guest is Yvonne Rainer.
Saturday, July 1 @ 2:30 PM
Yvonne Rainer Film Series - Film about a Woman Who...
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
In this experimental film, Rainer focuses on the re-invention of the narrative in film from a feminist point-of-view. (1974, 105 mins.)
Thursday, July 13 @ 6 PM
Yvonne Rainer Film Series - Kristina Talking Pictures
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
In this film, a European lion tamer comes to New York and takes up choreography. The film can be viewed in terms of its reflections on art, love and catastrophe sustained by the voices of Kristina, the heroine-narrator, and Raoul, her lover. (1976, 90 mins.)
Thursday, July 20 @ 6 PM
Yvonne Rainer Film Series - Journeys from Berlin/1971
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
Rainer's rumination on terrorism was undertaken while she was living in Berlin during the '70s. Constructed from a variety of filmic and literary materials, the film is set at the Berlin Wall ("an analogue for the march of history") and at Stonehenge ("analogue for the psychoanalytic session"). Central to the work is an extended therapy session in which an American woman speaks to a series of psychiatrists who each have their back to the camera, thus evoking the daily experiences of power and repression. With Annette Michelson, Ilona Halberstadt, Gabor Vernon, Chad Wollen, Amy Taubin, Vito Acconci, Lena Hyun, Yvonne Rainer, Cynthia Beatt, Antonio Skarmeta. (1980, 125 mins.)
Saturday, July 29 @ 2:30 PM
Yvonne Rainer Film Series - The Man Who Envied Women
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
In this film, Rainer explores the issues of sexuality, aging, power relations and political activism, while the breakup of a marriage provides the theme for a humorous account of a self-satisfied womanizer. Jack Deller is a man "who knows almost too much about women." The filmmaker reveals the oppositions that are created not only between the sexes, but between theory and action, the conscious and unconscious, intellect and emotion, and personal versus global concerns. With William Raymond, Trisha Brown, Jackie Raynal, Larry Loonin. (1985, 125 mins.)
Thursday, August 3 @ 6 PM
Yvonne Rainer Film Series - Privilege
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
FREE
Nypl.org/lpa
Rainer's subversive movie about menopause addresses issues of sexual identity and the unequal economies of race, gender and class. The film is set in motion by clips from an old black and white educational film, facts and data shot off a Macintosh computer, and a cast of characters with varied, provocative and often contrasting political critiques. Jenny, the white, middle-aged protagonist, agrees to be interviewed by Yvonne, an African American friend, who is making a documentary on menopause. Her candid observations are punctuated by a "hot flashback" of Rashomon-like intensity which reveals an experience she has kept secret for 25 years. With Alice Spivak, Novella Nelson, Blaire Baron, Rico Elias, Gabrielle Farrar, Tyrone Wilson, Dan Berkey. (1990, 103 mins.)
Radical Bodies is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., the Ceil and Michael Pulitzer Foundation, the Metabolic Studio, Jody and John Arnhold, Victoria Hendler and Eva and Yoel Haller.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation.
About The New York Public Library For The Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses one of the world's most extensive combinations of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. These materials are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs. The Library is part of The New York Public Library system, which has 90 locations in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, and is a lead provider of free education for all.
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