Judson Dance Theater

Judson Dance Theater was a collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Manhattan New York City between 1962 and 1964. It grew out of a composition class taught by Robert Dunn, a musician who had studied with John Cage. The artists involved were avant garde experimentalists who rejected the confines of Modern dance practice and theory, inventing as they did the precepts of Postmodern dance.

The first Judson concert took place on July 6, 1962, with works created by Steve Paxton, Fred Herko, David Gordon, Alex and Deborah Hay, Yvonne Rainer, Elaine Summers, William Davis, and Ruth Emerson. The group met weekly to perform and receive critique. Judson Dance Theater produced nearly two hundred dances.

It was a place for collaboration between artists in various fields such as, dancers, writers, filmmakers, composers, etc. There was an atmosphere of diversity and freedom. And as a collaborative effort the group was constantly redefining itself. Everyday movements became inspiration for material in many of the pieces created. Some of the Judson Dance Theater artists used untrained performers and dancers to convey a freshness and natural approach to movement. Yvonne Rainer's 'No Manifesto' - (to which she rejects any confines to technique, thrill, spectacle, glamour, or assumed space), was a way to state what the Judson Dance Theater wanted; a way to convey the beauty of ordinary movement and the pureness of dance/performance art.

Influence

Developments in dance practice that can be traced back to the Judson Dance Theater include:

• contact improvisation
• dance improvisation
• dance for camera

Performers

Main article: List of Judson Dance Theater performers

Some of the notable seminal dance artists, musicians and visual artists who were part of the Judson Dance Theater include:

• Trisha Brown
• Jessica Cargill
• Lucinda Childs
• Philip Corner
• Judith Dunn
• Malcolm Goldstein           
• David Gordon
• Sally Gross
• Deborah Hay
• Fred Herko
• Tony Holder

• Meredith Monk
• Aileen Passloff
• Steve Paxton
• Yvonne Rainer
• Arlene Rothlein
• Carolee Schneemann
• Jen Scoble
• Valda Setterfield
• Elaine Summers
• James Waring

See also

• Dance of the United States
• Simone Forti
• Grand Union (dance group)
• Anna Halprin
• Postmodern dance
• New York School

References

Further reading

• Banes, Sally (1993) Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962-1964. Duke University press. ISBN 0-8223-1399-5
• Burt, Ramsay (2006) Judson Dance Theater: Performative traces. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97574-3
• "The First Concert of Dance at the Judson Dance Theater"
• Chin, Daryl (2010) "Mistaken Identities, Part II"

External links

• Judson Memorial Church Archive at Fales Library, New York University