FALL 2012 at Danspace Project includes PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now celebrating the 50th anniversary of Judson Dance Theater
runs Sept 5th -December 15th 2012...
FALL 2012 at Danspace Project runs September 5 - December 15, 2012Danspace Project's fall season includes the seventh of our acclaimed Platform series. PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now runs from September 5, 2012 through December 1, 2012 with performances at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery organized by Danspace Project executive director Judy Hussie-Taylor with guest curators for select events. Judson Now presents work by Judson-era artists reflecting their current artistic interests and includes artists who influenced Judson pre-1962 and contemporary artists who claim Judson as a direct point of reference.
Fifty years after the first Concert of Dance at Judson Church in 1962, Judson's radical experiments are still influencing the way artists work today. Many artists who participated in the more than 200 experimental evenings from 1962-1966 are still making, performing, exhibiting, and touring their work. Their generative cross-disciplinary experiments gave rise to some of the most important movements of the 1960s and 1970s and still inspire younger generations in multiple disciplines to take artistic risks.
"Judson Now is not a comprehensive survey but rather a snapshot of Judson's influence in the current moment. Judson Dance Theater's mythic reach is vast, its artists were many, its experiments were multidisciplinary, and the anarchic energy and vision spilled out of the Judson Church into lofts, theaters, churches, and even to other cities," writes Hussie-Taylor. "There is no one narrative to sum up Judson and this generative period in downtown New York."
PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now includes events and performances by Lucinda Childs, Simone Forti, David Gordon, Deborah Hay, Meredith Monk, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Carolee Schneemann and Elaine Summers. Artists who directly or indirectly reference Judson ideas include Trajal Harrell, Clarinda Mac Low, and Stacy Spence. Danspace Project artist-curators who have, in recent years, performed in the work of Judson artists including Patricia Hoffbauer, Juliette Mapp, and Melinda Ring, will each curate an evening responding to the idea of Judson lineage.
Judson Now takes place over 10 weeks. Public events include performances, discussions, panels, film showings, and artists' residencies. Danspace Project will publish a catalogue co-edited by Jenn Joy and Judy Hussie-Taylor featuring archival and contemporary images, interviews, and essays.
PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now has been organized by Hussie-Taylor with assistance from a research team comprised of Jenn Joy, Huffa Frobes-Cross, Lydia Bell, Judith Walker, and Adrienne Rooney. Wendy Perron has served as artistic advisor. Judson Now coincides with and complements other Judson 50th Anniversary events throughout New York City, including workshops and presentations presented by Movement Research.
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John Cage's 100th Birthday Gathering
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 * 9-11pm
Admission: Free. RSVP at www.danspaceproject.org.
Historian Sally Banes has called John Cage the "grandfather of Judson Dance Theater." On his 100th birthday we celebrate his genius as well as the legacy of Judson Dance Theater with a celebration to launch the Judson Now Platform. The event will include a reception, a ceremonial gathering of Judson artists and community, and performances by Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener, and So Percussion. So Percussion recently celebrated John Cage in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall that The New Yorker's Alex Ross called "...one of the more entertaining and fulfilling evenings I've had in recent years." For this one-time event, So Percussion will perform several Cage works. "Just as the Judson dance world traces its roots to John Cage as the grandfather, So Percussion traces our experimental roots back to Cage as well," says So Percussion co-founder Jason Treuting. Former Merce Cunningham Dance Company members Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener will perform a new collaboration examining their shared history of cultural aesthetics. Together the artists question "what is taste? What do we like, and why do we like it?"
Elaine Summers in conversation with Lana Wilson
Friday, September 7, 2012 * 2 pm
Admission: 0 suggested donation
Intermedia pioneer Elaine Summers performed at the First Concert of Dance at Judson Church in 1962. For over 50 years she has been investigating the interrelationship of art and technology with Elaine Summers Dance & Film Co. She is a co-founder of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation, and innovator of Kinetic Awareness, a seminal system of bodywork practiced by many choreographers and performers. On this afternoon, Summers and curator Lana Wilson address the socio-political context of the pre-Judson era and how it fed into Judson Dance Theater, with special interest in parallels between that time and the present. Summers will be honored as a distinguished leader of modern dance at the Opening Night Gala of The American Dance Guild's annual performance festival (September 6, 2012).
Conversations Without Walls:
An afternoon marking Judson Dance Theater's 50th Anniversary organized by Steve Paxton
Saturday, September 8, 2012 *1:30pm - 5:30pm
Admission: 0 suggested donation at the door
This Conversation Without Walls organized and moderated by Judson founding member Paxton is a combination of formal presentations, informal discussion, and dance including performances of Paxton's Intravenous Lecture by Stephen Petronio and a performance by Toronto-based dancer Yves Candau. Barbara Moore will present a pictorial memoir of Judson Dance Theater with the photos of Peter Moore, and a history of Judson Memorial Church presented by Judson scholar and curator Joanna Steinberg. Lively discussion with Paxton and other special guests conclude the four-hour event. The ongoing Conversations Without Walls series began in 2011 as part of Danspace Project's Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW2).
Jackson Mac Low 90th Birthday Celebration and Book Party
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 * 8pm
Location: The Parish Hall at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
Admission: 0 suggested donation at the door
Danspace Project and The Poetry Project celebrate Jackson Mac Low, poet, Fluxus artist, and advocate for nonviolence, who would have turned 90 on September 12, 2012. In recognition of the release of his seminal work, 154 FORTIES, edited by Anne Tardos, (Counterpath Press, 2012), Danspace Project and The Poetry Project host a reading from this collection, followed by a reception. Readers include Kenny Goldsmith, Joan Retallack, James Sherry, Anne Tardos, Anne Waldman, and others to be announced. This event is part of 40 Dancers do 40 Dances for the Dancers, a series of events celebrating Mac Low's birthday and inspired by his book The Pronouns: A Collection of 40 Dances for the Dancers.
CLARINDA MAC LOW and JACKSON MAC LOW
40 Dancers do 40 Dances for the Dancers
(Premiere and Danspace Project Commission)
Thursday, September 13, 2012 - Saturday, September 15, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
Performance and installation artist, and co-Director of cross-disciplinary organization Culture Push, Clarinda Mac Low brings together a large, eclectic group of friends and colleagues to construct a series of performances based on The Pronouns: A Collection of 40 Dances for the Dancers, a book of performance instruction poems initially inspired by a Simone Forti performance organized by La Monte Young in 1961, written by her father, poet/composer/multi-media artist Jackson Mac Low, in celebration of what would have been his 90th birthday. Special guest appearance by Simone Forti (with Nuclei for Simone Forti) performing the original instruction poems that eventually developed into The Pronouns.
Confirmed collaborators (subject to change at short notice): Luciana Achugar, Linda Austin, Anna Azraeli, Lydia Bell, Paul Benney, Lise Brenner, Maya Ciarrocchi, Chris Cochrane, Michael DiPietro, Levi Gonzalez, Chase Granoff, Nacho Granoff-Achugar, Carolyn Hall, James Hannaham, Mitch Highfill, Patricia Hoffbauer, K.J. Holmes, Ezra Holzman, Janusz Jaworski, Sarah East Johnson, Andrea Kleine, Masumi Kouakou, Abigail Levine, Tania Liberata, Joyce Lim, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, EJ McAdams, Lyla McAdams, Jane McAdams, Sean Meehan, Jennifer Miller, Ryutaro Mishima, Jennifer Monson, Leyna Papach, Adam Parrish, Bobby Previte, Mikkel Rosengaard, Lynn Marie Ruse, George Emilio Sanchez, Karen Sherman, Sally Silvers, Paz Tanjuaquio, Dannielle Tegeder, David Thomson, and Deb Travis, with a special guest appearance by Simone Forti.
An Evening with Lucinda Childs
Monday, September 17, 2012 * 7pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
An original member of Judson Dance Theater, Lucinda Childs performed her solo Pastime, in which she sat on stage inside of a bag, at the 4th Concert of Dance at Judson Church. Childs' conceptual, and, later, minimal approach to choreography coupled with her classical training has lead her on a diverse and prolific career path. She has choreographed for Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach (1976), which will return to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in September. Her collaboration with Glass and Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt on Dance (1979) was recently reprised and toured. Childs has also been commissioned by the Paris Opera Ballet, Martha Graham Company, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. On this special evening, Childs screens footage of Pastime and Screen (1965) and leads a discussion of her Judson-era work.
Two Evenings with Carolee Scheemann: Films and Performances
Friday, September 21, 2012 - Saturday, September 22, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
Over two nights, pioneering artist Carolee Schneemann will present newly edited archival films of her groundbreaking works Meat Joy (1964), Water Light/Water Needle (originally performed at St. Mark's Church in 1966), and Snows (1967), interspersed with live performance work. Lateral Splay, a work for twelve to fifteen runners originally performed at the 13th Concert of Dance at Judson Church in 1963 will be performed with other works to be announced. Schneemann will be on hand to introduce each film and performance. Carolee Schneemann's painting, photography, performance art, installation, film, and video have been the subject of solo shows and retrospectives at The New Museum (New York City), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), and The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City). Her work can be found worldwide in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art (New York City), The Hamburger Banhof Museum (Berlin), and The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (Lost Angeles), among many others.
STACY SPENCE
Eden As We Recall
(Danspace Project Commission)
Thursday, September 27 - Saturday, September 29, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
A longtime member of Trisha Brown Dance Company (1997-2006), Stacy Spence was an original cast member of many of the company's important works. Citing his time with the company as "an education on how to work," he continues his involvement with the group through teaching, lecturing, and workshops. Spence's own choreographic interest lies in the effects of environment on an individual and vice versa. His mobile improvisation piece, Trekking, in which he intermingled with St. Mark's Church and the events within it over a period of three hours, took place inside and outside of Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in March 2012. In this new evening-length collaboration with sound artist Tei Blow and dancer Brandi Norton, Spence continues his exploration of environment as an impetus for creativity. Eden As We Recall was shown as a work-in-progress at Danspace Project's DraftWork series in 2011.
The Story Behind the Story Behind Mannequin (1962) and The Matter (1972) with David Gordon and Valda Setterfield
Monday, October 8, 2012 * 7pm
Location: Diana Event Oval, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York City
In partnership with Danspace Project, Barnard College hosts a conversation with David Gordon and Valda Setterfield. Choreographer Gordon speaks about his current work and its relation to Mannequin, a solo he performed in a bloody lab coat at the first Judson Dance Theater concert in 1962, and The Matter, a 1972 group work based on a series of nudes in motion by Eadweard Muybridge. The Matter/2012 premieres at Danspace Project (October 25-27) and will contain original movement and newly choreographed/staged sections. Gordon discusses the use of scores for choreography, how he thinks he learned to improvise, and the influence of his daily life on his work. Valda Setterfield, his partner and frequent collaborator, lends her unique perspective on their long term working relationship. Wendy Perron, editor of Dance Magazine, moderates the event, which is also part of the series Judson@50.
TRAJAL HARRELL
Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure)/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M2M)
(New York Premiere, Danspace Project Commission)
Thursday, October 11, 2012 - Saturday, October 13, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
Antigone Jr. - special showing
Monday, October 1, 2012 * 6:30pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
Choreographer Trajal Harrell takes a new critical position on postmodern dance aesthetics originating from the Judson era with Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure), also known as (M2M), a custom-made size in his ongoing Twenty Looks project which asks the question "What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ball scene in Harlem had come downtown to perform alongside the early postmoderns at Judson Church?" In this new evening-length work for three dancers, Harrell inverts his original proposition to imagine a new crossroads: "What would have happened if someone from Judson Dance Theater had gone uptown to perform in the voguing ballroom scene?" As part of Danspace Project's Choreographic Center Without Walls Harrell receives a production residency the week of October 1 - 6. On the first day of his residency, Harrell presents a special one-time-only showing of Antigone Jr., the junior size in the Twenty Looks series. Harrell seeks the essence of tragedy, boiling Sophocles' tragedy down to the story of two sisters, with Harrell as Antigone and collaborator Thibault Lac as Ismene.
DAVID GORDON
The Matter/2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012 - Saturday, October 27, 2012 * 7pm & 9pm (Two shows per evening)
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
Open rehearsals
Thursday, October 18 - Saturday, October 20, 2012 * 7pm-9pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
Fifty years ago choreographer David Gordon performed Mannequin, a solo, in a bloody lab coat at the first Concert of Dance at Judson Church. Ten years later, in 1972, he presented The Matter, a group work based on a series of nudes in motion by photographer Eadweard Muybridge. His cast of 40 included Valda Setterfield, Ain Gordon, NYU students, and local artist volunteers. Setterfield danced solos from a score of Muybridge's photos provided by Gordon, and the entire cast danced Gordon's earlier solo Mannequin.
The premiere of The Matter/2012 includes original movement to music and newly choreographed staged sections by a cast that includes Gordon's own Pick Up Performance Co(s), theater and dance students from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and Valda Setterfield.
As part of Danspace Project's Choreographic Center Without Walls, Gordon receives a production residency the week of October 15-20. During this residency, Gordon opens rehearsals to the public on October 18, 19, and 20 from 7-9pm.
YVONNE RAINER AND GROUP
Assisted Living: Do You Have Any Money?
(Premiere and Danspace Project Commission) /
Assisted Living: Good Sports 2 (2011)
Thursday, November 1, 2012 - Saturday, November 3, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
A founding member of Judson Dance Theater and Grand Union, Yvonne Rainer blurred the line between dance and day-to-day movement, making an impact on performance, visual art, and film. On this occasion, Rainer presents the premiere of the latest in her Assisted Living series. Assisted Living: Do You Have Any Money? and the 2011 work Assisted Living: Good Sports 2 feature mélanges of dance and other movement derived from varied sources. Rainer's notable group of performers includes Pat Catterson, Emily Coates, Patricia Hoffbauer, Emmanuélle Phuon, and Keith Sabado.
Presented in partnership with Performa
SIMONE FORTI & FRIENDS
That Fish Is Broke
(Danspace Project Commission)
Thursday, November 8, 2012 - Saturday, November 10, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
Simone Forti's early Dance Constructions were fundamental to Judson Dance Theater. Based on improvisation and chance, they were first performed in 1961 in a program at Yoko Ono's studio organized by composer La Monte Young with participating artists Jackson Mac Low, Robert Morris, Philip Corner, and Richard Maxfield.
In this new work, premiering at Danspace Project, Forti draws on her daily practice of News Animations developed in the 1980s. Forti works with guest artists Luke Johnson and Brennan Gerard in an evening of improvisational moving and speaking. Patterns of language and the body in motion play off each other sparking questions, silences, speculations, and bursts of energy. Forti, Gerard, and Johnson respond to each other as they interweave the flickering, fluid vision of the world brought to us by the news media, the writings of pivotal thinkers from the past, and their own personal experiences.
Conversations Without Walls:
Reflections on MoMA's Some Sweet Day
Saturday, November 10, 2012 * 1:30pm - 5:30pm
Admission: 0 suggested donation at the door
In collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Danspace Project presents a conversation responding to Ralph Lemon's MoMA commissioned series Some Sweet Day (October 15 - November 4, 2012).
Danspace Project invites artists, curators, and scholars to respond to the aesthetic and historic dialogue proposed by Some Sweet Day performances. This conversation re-visits all six performances curated by Lemon discussing a wide range of responses including Judson's influence and divergences after 50 years. Steve Paxton and Deborah Hay, original members of Judson Dance Theater, will participate in both MoMA's Some Sweet Day and Danspace's Judson Now Platform. Moderated by performance scholar Jenn Joy, joined by Ralph Lemon and MoMA curator Jenny Schlenzka, the conversations at Danspace Project will, in part, address their legacy. Full list of participants to be announced.
The Art of Influence:
Evenings Curated by Melinda Ring, Juliette Mapp, and Patricia Hoffbauer
Thursday, November 15, 2012 - Saturday, November 17, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
The curators for these three distinct evenings have, in recent years, performed in the work of Judson choreographers. Juliette Mapp has performed in the work of Deborah Hay, Patricia Hoffbauer in the work of Yvonne Rainer, and Melinda Ring in the work of Rudy Perez. They have each been invited to curate an evening reflecting and responding to the idea of Judson and its influences.
Juliette Mapp curates an evening titled Nature and its Discontents (Thursday, November 15) featuring artists who employ different methods of inquiry into the natural and unconscious world in order to expand and ground their research and work. Confirmed artists include Lance Gries, Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, and Jen Rosenblit. Mapp is working with the idea that the natural world is referenced in the movement, methods, and dances of many Judson artists. The unlocking of our conscious and unconscious associations with nature through literal references, dreams, and theoretical processes was a gift from the Judson artists that continues to move choreographers in new ways.
Dance by Default, curated by Melinda Ring (Friday, November 16), alludes to a recent Artforum interview with Robert Morris who (speaking on his 1963 event War, a collaboration with Robert Huot) said, "I believe the other events were all billed as dances. So by default our performance of War was categorized as a dance." The evening will include performances by visual artists including Martin Kersels, and others to be announced, who, like those of the early Judson Dance Theater, collaborate with choreographers and work with dance in other ways.
Patricia Hoffbauer presents an evening of dance, ideas, and stories concentrating on the expanded dimensions offered by the Judson artists to the field of dance titled Lineage, Legacy, Leitmotif(Saturday, November 17). Participating artists and scholars Pat Catterson, Sara Rudner, Arthur Aviles, Jennifer Monson, Sally Silvers, and Claire Bishop will discuss, illustrate, improvise, and dialogue with each other on the impact the stretching of the meaning of dance proposed by Judson had on their lives and work.
MEREDITH MONK
Pioneer Days
Monday, November 19, 2012 * 7pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
While Meredith Monk was not an original member of the Judson Dance Theater, her breakthrough work 16 Millimeter Earrings first appeared at Judson Church in 1966 and immediately established her as a pioneer in what would later be called "interdisciplinary performance."
For this program, the film version of 16 Millimeter Earrings will be screened along with several of Monk's short silent films, and live works (to be announced) will be performed that demonstrate her expansive, multi-perceptual thinking and influence.
DEBORAH HAY DANCE COMPANY
As Holy Sites Go/duet (Premiere and Danspace Project commission)
Thursday, November 29, 2012 - Saturday, December 1, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 8 (2 Danspace members)
Distinguished choreographer Deborah Hay is a founding member of Judson Dance Theater and participated in the first Concert of Dance at Judson Church. Based on her No Time to Fly (2010), which marked Hay's return to solo performance, As Holy Sites Go/duet originally began as a trio and has been adapted as a duet for choreographers Jeanine Durning and Ros Warby. The dancers' choice to perform much of the choreographic material that determines As Holy Sites Go/duet, requires, in Hay's own words "catastrophic acts of perception" as they dis-attach from a multitude of former behavior.
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UNDING FOR PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now
Danspace Project's PLATFORM program is a series of guest artist-curated programs that are part of the Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW²). As a framework for Danspace's presentations and commissions, CW² aims to examine and discover ways of providing context, curatorial support, and space for choreographers and their works. The CW² and its PLATFORM series receives major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition, this fall's PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now has received lead funding from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
Special thanks to all our space and presentation partners: Abrons Arts Center, Barnard College, Gibney Dance Center, Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts, Mount Tremper Arts, Movement Research, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Performa, and The Poetry Project
Additional Fall 2012 Danspace Project Performances and Events
Sorry I Missed Your Show
Danspace Project PLATFORM 2012: Parallels
Moderated by Judy Hussie-Taylor and Ishmael Houston-Jones
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 * 6pm
Location: Gibney Dance Center, 809 Broadway, 5th Floor, Studio 6, New York, NY
Admission: Free, reservation required.
To RSVP visit https://www.artfullyhq.com/store/events/335
Sorry I Missed Your Show is a second chance to revisit recently produced dance works from fresh perspectives. This project presents video screenings of works by both emerging and established choreographers followed by thoughtful discussions that deepen the connection between artists and their audiences. This project is produced in partnership with Dance/NYC.
DraftWork
Moriah Evans and Nicole Bindler & Gabrielle Revlock
Saturday, September 29, 2012 * 3pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
Curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones, the DraftWork series hosts informal Saturday afternoon performances that offer choreographers an opportunity to show their work in various stages of development. Performances are followed by discussion and an informal reception.
DraftWork
Malcolm Low and Paloma McGregor
Saturday, October 27, 2012 * 3pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
Movement Research Festival: FALL 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012 - Saturday, December 8, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 2
Movement Research, one of the world's leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms, returns to Danspace Project with its annual Fall Festival. The Movement Research Festival: FALL 2012, curated by Juliette Mapp and Jen Rosenblit, will feature acclaimed experimentalists highlighting and juxtaposing their varied investigations into the artistic currents of dance and performance. The Festival will also include additional events, as well as classes and workshops taught by festival participants, December 3-9.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Thursday, December 13, 2012 - Saturday, December 15, 2012 * 8pm
Admission: 0 or with two cans of food*
This popular program presents multiple artists over one weekend with a different guest curator each evening.
*FOOD FOR THOUGHT collects canned food over the course of the run to support St. Mark's Church food distribution program.
DraftWork
Lily Gold and Katie Swords
Saturday, December 15, 2012 * 3pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
About Danspace Project
Danspace Project presents new work in dance, supports a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work, encourages experimentation, and connects artists to audiences.
Now in its fourth decade, Danspace Project has supported a vital community of contemporary dance artists in an environment unlike any other in the United States. Located in the historic St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Danspace shares its facility with the Church, The Poetry Project, and The Incubator Arts Project. Danspace Project's Commissioning Initiative has commissioned over 430 new works since its inception in 1994.
Danspace Project's Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW²) provides context for audiences and increased support for artists. Danspace Project's presentation programs (including Platforms, FOOD FOR THOUGHT, DraftWork), Commissioning Initiative, residencies, guest artist curators, and contextualizing activities and materials are core components of CW² that offer a responsive framework for artists' works. Since 2010, we have commissioned 67 emerging and established artists, produced six guest-curated Platforms, published six print catalogues and four e-books, launched the Conversations Without Walls series, and explored models for public discourse and residencies.
