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An
architect of form, Trisha Brown shapes space with choreography
that is at times as languorous and fluid as water, and at others
with movement that has the angularity of jagged edge of cliff face
or facet of diamond. If we allude to nature here - water, rocks -
it must be understood that geometry has always been Ms. Brown's
point of departure: she begins with the line - its beginning and
end, the edge, the border. In the 60s and 70s when Trisha
Brown was dancing with the cutting-edge Grand Union or as a
founding member of Judson Dance Theater (possibly the most
important modern dance collective to date) the audience was
familiar mainly with the classical forms and linear narrative of
ballet. Brown and her collaborators and contemporaries
(Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham) radically changed the way dance
was viewed: they made it modern, intellectual, difficult,
arousing, challenging, surprising, hip. They refuted the
idea that dance needed to look 'pretty' and challenged our notions
of elegance and beauty. Brown has incorporated opera, video
and other media into her work and commissioned artists such as
Robert Rauschenberg to create visually stunning sets to accompany
her work. New
Yorkers have a marvelous opportunity to catch the septuagenarian
choreographer's work at BAM next week where Trisha Brown Dance
Company will be presenting a retrospective of career
highlights. It starts off with Planes (1968), in
which dancers attempt to scale a vertical wall against which an
evocative, impressionistic film of New York is projected.
There is also Glacial Decoy (1970), a superb fast-paced
presentation in which Brown highlights the dancers'
entrances and exits (usually peripheral to a piece) and brings
them metaphorically center stage, with Rauschenberg's
black-and-white set as background. O zlozony/O
composite (2004), with post-modern score by Laurie Anderson
and sets by the eerie abstract painter Vija Celmins also explores
Brown's romance with the fluid and the ductile. Rounding out
the program is the world premiere of the Baroque-influenced L'Amour
au Théâtre. To see Trisha Brown live is to experience
the sometimes fluid, sometimes angular architecture of
contemporary dance at its best. Sally
Barnes' book Terpsichore in Sneakers is a classic primer on
Post-Modern Dance, a perfect theoretical refresher before a BAM
visit next week!
See:
Trisha Brown@BAM,
April 29 - May 2
Read:
Terpsichore in
Sneakers, Sally Barnes
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