Deborah Hay has liberated contemporary dance on many levels, from her early days in New York to her international influence today. Not in the least from within the design of how she chooses to disseminate her choreography. In my opinion, her multiple inventions and innovations for transmitting her aesthetic through community building are in line with the women’s rights movement and the principles that guide a feminist organization.
on lineage at the end of a form
"The imagination is always at the end of an era." -Wallace Stevens
In dance, as the age of modern masters passes, questions about lineage and legacy pervade the field. Stephen Petronio’s Bloodlines project prompted this from critic Brian Sebert:
contemporary choreography meets medical technology
against translation: in defense of inaccessibility
on curatorial neutrality
by Megan Wright
MoMA PS1’s Zero Tolerance is an exhibition of activist art from the twentieth century onward. Its scope is international, with pieces responding to oppression in places as diverse as Belgrade, Beijing, and Sao Paulo. Despite its range, the exhibit’s themes and techniques consistently question art’s relationship to activism.
Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming
Hot Pink Heaven: Queer Utopia at American Realness
by Megan Wright
Age & Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or &:-/
Miguel Gutierrez (in collaboration with Mickey Mahar)
co-presented by American Realness and Gibney Dance
This work, the first part of an as-yet-unfinished trilogy, opened with a series of dense, precise unison duets that highlighted the two performers’ variations in affect. Miguel Gutierrez, 43, was warm and sexy, rocking golden hair and a pink flowered swimsuit; his collaborator Mickey Mahar, 24, was pale and less assured, but diligent to the point of doggedness.
new work in new york
by Hope Mohr
Every year in early January, thousands of performing arts lovers converge on New York City to attend several simultaneous festivals and conferences including American Realness, COIL, Under the Radar, and APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference). This year marked HMD’s debut in NYC as part of APAP. In addition to presenting work, I also caught several performances. Herewith, some short reviews.
does your work do what you say it does?
How to be rigorous and also collaborative? Stephanie Skura talks to Abby Crain
Keith Hennessy reviews Have We Come a Long Way, Baby?
panel discussion on artistic lineage featuring Halprin, Forti, Ross and Mohr
women’s work
tech is not culture
curating the contemporary
Simone Forti in conversation with Jennie Goldstein (Critical Correspondence Reprint)
Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence, a conversation between Forti and Jennie Goldstein