Judson Memorial Church and the intersections between happening and dancing

The article examines a short excerpt from the New York scene, namely the period around 1959–1963 in the context of the environment, happening, dance pieces and draws attention to the leading influences of Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham. We are focusing on the gravitating artists’ circles around the Judson Memorial Church and some of their distinct practices and centers. Among the many, we consider the Reuben Gallery, Judson Gallery, Judson Dance Theater, and artists such as Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Morris, Simon Forti, Carolee Schneemann, Robert Rauschenberg. The text does not aim to provide a complete overview of Judson Dance Theater or the artists` practices, but rather to consider some of their common influences in their period of formation. We will bring the environment and the happening under their contradictions and variability and will consider the first generation of dance reformers at Judson Dance Theater as an influential force for involving visual artists in intermediate zones.

Breaking at the Edges: Carolee Schneemann's Desires for Dance

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Carolee Schneemann primarily identified as a painter. But she was a keen and cutting observer of dance. This article considers Schneemann's audacious performance work for the Judson Dance Theater and reflects on its ongoing importance both at the time of her death and in a world forced apart by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Bailando en el Museo Reina Sofía. El Judson Dance Theater, más allá de la danza minimalista

Una vez conocida la manera en que se ha introducido la danza en diversos museos del panorama internacional, así como los textos, propuestas expositivas y otras iniciativas que reflexionan sobre el papel que adquiere esta en relación con el cubo blanco; se torna apremiante explorar el contexto español, marcado por una dilatada ausencia y escasez de fuentes. Así, este artículo plantea una primera aproximación a los procesos de musealización de la danza en España. Para ello, explora cómo se ha introducido la disciplina en el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, profundiza en su gestión en el área de colecciones y toma como objeto de estudio la Sala 104.04, Performance e Interacción. Judson Dance Theater, perteneciente a la Colección 3: De la revuelta a la posmodernidad (1962-1982).

Bailando en el Museo Reina Sofía. El Judson Dance Theater, más allá de la danza minimalista

Una vez conocida la manera en que se ha introducido la danza en diversos museos del panorama internacional, así como los textos, propuestas expositivas y otras iniciativas que reflexionan sobre el papel que adquiere esta en relación con el cubo blanco; se torna apremiante explorar el contexto español, marcado por una dilatada ausencia y escasez de fuentes. Así, este artículo plantea una primera aproximación a los procesos de musealización de la danza en España. Para ello, explora cómo se ha introducido la disciplina en el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, profundiza en su gestión en el área de colecciones y toma como objeto de estudio la Sala 104.04, Performance e Interacción. Judson Dance Theater, perteneciente a la Colección 3: De la revuelta a la posmodernidad (1962-1982).

Trisha Brown: Between Abstraction and Representation (1966–1998)

Choreographer Trisha Brown (1936–2017) is renowned as one of the most influential abstract artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Emerging from Judson Dance Theater and the 1960s avant-garde, Brown invented what she termed her ‘pure movement’ abstract vocabulary in the 1970s, rejecting narrative, psychology and character as bases for dance-making. Yet Brown’s notion of abstraction, when examined across the long arc of her fifty-year career, is more complicated and elastic than previously known. This essay addresses selected choreographies dating from her first decade as a choreographer, the 1960s, to the production of her first opera L’Orfeo (1998), underscoring how memories, images, language and stories fueled a previously unexamined dynamic relationship between abstraction and representation that profoundly influenced her choreography’s development.

Danser l’Anarchie: théories et pratiques anarchistes dans le Judson Dance Theater, Grand Union et le Contact Improvisation

Résumé: On parle souvent, à l’égard de la danse post-moderne américaine des années 1960 et 1970, de corps, de mouvements, de procédures chorégraphiques démocratiques. Pourtant, certains traits de ces danses (déhiérarchisation des parties du corps et des virtuosités, recherche de processus de décision collectifs...) s’opposent de manière critique à la démocratie libérale. C’est plutôt de l’anarchisme qu’elles se réclament. En s’appuyant sur trois aventures collectives américaines, et en examinant les écrits de Steve Paxton comme témoin et acteur de ces aventures, cet article se demande: Qu’est-ce qu’un postulat anarchiste permet de voir dans ces danses? Que nous apprennent les pratiques chorégraphiques sur l’anarchie?

Rainer, Yvonne (1934--)

Yvonne Rainer is a key figure of both American postmodern dance and avant-garde feminist cinema. Rainer was a founding member of New York City’s Judson Dance Theater, a hub of postmodern dance experimentation in the 1960s. In her choreography, Rainer rejected the spectacle, virtuosity, and drama exhibited by classical ballet and modern dance, choosing instead to present functional, task-like, neutral movement. Her approach to choreography, which refused to provide easy pleasure, is demonstrated in her "No Manifesto" (1965). Between 1966 and 1969, Rainer began to experiment with film, creating several short works that play with the antihumanist idea that bodies can be equated with objects. In the 1970s Rainer turned her attention exclusively to feature-length experimental filmmaking. Her films in the 1970s and 1980s are works of bricolage that use radical juxtapositions of sound and imagery to create experiences of discontinuity that challenge conventional narrative cinematic structures. Rainer’s first feature-length film, The Lives of Performers (1972), blends fiction and reality by including rehearsal footage from previous dance works, and featuring several dancers from her company, Grand Union, as characters in the film. Rainer’s early films have been described as almost structuralist, owing their inspiration to filmmakers such as Maya Deren, Hollis Frampton, and Andy Warhol.

PERSPECTIVAS SIGNIFICATIVAS EM DANÇA CONTEMPORÂNEA: arte e criação de Tuca Pinheiro

O presente artigo surge como resultado de uma residência com o artista Tuca Pinheiro e objetiva apresentar algumas de suas ideias sobre arte e criação em dança, tecendo conexões entre seus pensamentos e alguns princípios expressos no movimento do Judson Dance Theater. Espera-se compor perspectivas significativas em dança contemporânea, que possam ampliar discussões e trazer reflexões sobre seu “modo de existir” e de permanecer.