Four of the Most Influential Postmodern Dances  

Judson Dance Theatre: The First Decade is a chance to experience rarely seen choreography from the 1960’s as originally presented. Opening up the art form to an unlimited palette of expression, these artists reduced dance to its essential elements and to infinite possibilities for the future.

The Chamber Dance Company is thrilled to be performing works from the rarely seen first decade (1960’s) of the famous Judson Dance Theatre, a collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists whose experiments gave rise to postmodern dance. In a class taught by composer Robert Dunn and responding to the notions of John Cage and various cultural fascinations of the time, the students presented work in the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. Together they challenged the prevailing aesthetic of modern dance, mainly its use of narrative, myth, and psychology, while breaking new artistic ground. A spirit of anarchy and permissiveness reigned, along with an impulse to pare dance to its essentials. Works performed by CDC will include Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Steve Paxton and Yvonne Rainer. Additional choreography by Zvi Gotheiner, whose work thirty years later was foreshadowed by these genre-changing Judson artists will also be presented.

Hannah Wiley, artistic director comments:  “I began seeing work from these artists over forty years ago in NYC, and 2016 feels like the right time to honor and contextualize these renegade choreographers’ contributions to the vitality and relevance of contemporary dance alive today in Seattle and throughout the world.”

The Chamber Dance Company is comprised of dancers who are now pursuing MFA degrees, and who have had at least eight years of professional performance experience (a requirement for admittance into the MFA program) with nationally and internationally acclaimed groups such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ririe-Woodbury Dancers, Liz Gerring Dance and the Radio City Rockettes, this is a concert featuring world class dancers. Biographies on these dancers can be found at www.dance.washington.edu/people/graduate-student

The Program and Choreographers:

 Accumulation, Trisha Brown: This legendary solo is based on the simple device of adding one gesture to another, one at a time, and repeating the growing phrase with each new movement. While apparently simple, this dance poses heady challenges for the performer that belie physical virtuosity.

Satisfyin Lover, Steve Paxton: Paxton’s choreography questioned the established parameters of dance and used movements such as walking and standing still, which had not usually been considered part of dance performance vocabulary. The creator of Contact Improvisation, Paxton relentlessly has pursued the inquiry of what is and what isn’t dance?

 Carnation, Lucinda Childs: For this solo Childs found her inspiration in common objects she found in her local Woolworths store in the 60s. She literally inverts and converts everyday items into a zany, non-linear investigation. In this work, Childs also challenges our idea of time and momentum; she asks the audience to watch her struggle with undefined, apparently meaningless, yet seemingly significant tasks.

Chair/Pillow, Yvonne Rainer: In 1965 Rainer wrote her No Manifesto, which championed the ideas of the Judson period saying NO to: spectacle; virtuosity; transformations and magic and make-believe; the glamour and transcendency of the star image; and, the heroic, among others. This dance epitomizes these ideals.

Chairs, Zvi Gotheimer: In excerpts from this evening-long work, the groundwork laid and freedom granted by the Judson group is evident. Chairs, everyday objects, represent porches, bedrooms and communities. Issues, such as alienation, grief, love and community are addressed in a manner made possible by the Judson radicals.