Steve Paxton, who died on February 20, asked basic but foundational questions—about movement, performance, and hierarchies of all kinds.

I came to New York City in August 1961 to rehearse Kicks and Co., the Broadway-bound musical that Donald McKayle and Walter Nicks had hired me to dance in…

The brash, witty, contrary, lovable David Gordon passed away on January 30, 2022, at age 85. A leading postmodern choreographer who crossed over into playwriting territory, he was massively prolific for about 60 years.

In 1961, Yvonne Rainer presented her first solo study, Three Satie Spoons. It marked the start of a prolific career, the early years of which helped to define the experimental, anything-goes sensibility that emerged from Judson Dance Theater in the mid-1960s. She penned the ” ‘No’ manifesto” (“No to spectacle. No to virtuosity…”), which has […]

Yvonne Rainer’s Parts of Some Sextets (AKA “the mattress dance”) hasn’t been revived since it premiered in 1965. Nor has Rainer had any wish to do it again, to ask performers to heave 10 mattresses around while carrying out 31 tasks that changed every 30 seconds. It was an unwieldy, difficult dance. (Even the title […]

Here are the latest promotions, appointments and transfers, plus notable awards and accomplishments from the last month. Comings & Goings Karen Kain Karolina Kuras, Courtesy National Ballet of Canada Karen Kain will retire as artistic director of National Ballet of Canada in January 2021, at which time she will be named artistic director emeritus. A […]

In the early 1960s, a group of dancers started questioning the existing rules of choreography. Influenced by John Cage, they created dances that were startling in their simplicity and risk-taking. Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, David Gordon, Deborah Hay, Elaine Summers and Lucinda Childs were all part of this group. Most of them had […]