Everything about Trisha Brown totally explained
Trisha Brown (
25 November 1936,
Aberdeen, Washington,
U.S.) is a
postmodernist American choreographer and
dancer.
Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and received a
B.A. degree in dance from
Mills College in
1958. Brown later received a D.F.A. from
Bates College in 2000. For several summers she studied with
Louis Horst at the
American Dance Festival, then held at
Connecticut College. After moving to
New York in
1961, Brown trained with dancer
Anna Halprin and became a founding member of the
avant-garde Judson Dance Theater in
1962. There she worked with experimental dancers
Yvonne Rainer and
Steve Paxton. In
1970 she cofounded the
Grand Union, an experimental dance collective, and formed the
Trisha Brown Company. Her company soon became one of the leading contemporary dance ensembles. Brown received a
MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in
1991.
Brown’s early works
Walking on the Wall (
1971) and
Roof Piece (
1973) were designed to be performed at specific sites.
Accumulation (1971), which is executed with the dancers on their backs, has been performed in public spaces of all kinds, including on water, with the dancers floating on rafts as they methodically work through the piece's graduated gestures. Walking on the Wall involved dancers in harnesses moving along a wall, while Roof Piece took place on 12 different rooftops over a ten-block area in
New York City, with each dancer transmitting the movements to a dancer on the nearest roof. With
1978's
Accumulation with Talking plus Water Motor, a complex solo combining elements of three other pieces, she demonstrated a mental and physical vurtuosity seldom seen in the dance world, then or now. Brown's rigorous structures, combined with pedestrian or simple movement styles and tongue-in-cheek humor brought an intellectual air that challenged the mainstream "modern dance" mindset of this period.
During the
1980s Brown produced large-scale works intended for the
stage, beginning with
Glacial Decoy (1979) which had sets and costumes by artist Robert Rauschenberg. This period was most notable for the slithery and highly articulated movement style which characterized much of her work during this time. The "molecular structure series," which included 1980's Opal Loop, Son of Gone Fishin' (
1981) and another collaboration with Rauschenberg,
Set and Reset (
1983), featuring a
score by performance artist
Laurie Anderson, solidified Brown's stature as an innovator within the dance world and as an artist of global significance.
1985's
Lateral Pass began her "valiant" series, which used larger, bolder movement phrases to articulate Brown's evolving spacial aesthetics. This led to
Newark (
1987),
Astral Convertible (
1989) and
Foray Foret (
1990) with costumes and sets once again by Rauschenberg.
Brown has continued to explore the nature of motion and to choreograph dances based on everyday movements. Her style has developed from carefully built-up, repetitive
gestures to its current fluid virtuosity. In the
1990s she turned to choreographing classical music, creating
M.O. (
1995) based on the Musical Offering by
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and her first
opera production,
Orfeo (
1998) by
Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. Brown found inspiration in
jazz for
El Trilogy (
1998-
2000), completed her second
opera,
Luci mie traditrici (composed by
Salvatore Sciarrino) in
2001, and in
2002 choreographed the song cycle
Die Winterreise (Winter’s Journey) by
Austrian
composer Franz Schubert for
English baritone Simon Keenlyside. Brown worked again with Laurie Anderson in 2004 on
O Zlozony/O Composite for the Paris Opera Ballet.
Works of her (choreographies and drawings) are included in
documenta 12.
Works
Her works include:
- Homemade (1966)
- Man Walking Down the Side of a Building (1970)
- Floor of the Forest (1970)
- Leaning Duets (1970)
- Accumulation (1971)
- Walking on the Wall (1971)
- Primary Accumulation (1972)
- Group Primary Accumulation (1973)
- Roof Piece (1973)
- Structured Pieces II (1974)
- Spiral (1974)
- Locus (1975)
- Structured Pieces III (1975)
- Sololos (1976)
- Line Up (1976)
- Spanish Dance' (1976)
- Watermotor (1978)
- Accumulation with Talking plus Watermotor (1978)
- Glacial Decoy (1979)
- Opal Loop (1980)
- Son of Gone Fishin' (1981)
- Set and Reset (1983)
- Lateral Pass (1985)
- Newark (1987)
- Astral Convertible (1989)
- Foray Foret (1990)
- For MG: The Movie (1991)
- One Story as in falling (1992)
- Another Story as in falling (1993)
- If You Couldn't See Me (1994)
- M.O. (1995)
- Twelve Ton Rose (1996)
- Orfeo (1998)
- Winterreise (2002)
- O Zlozony/O Composite (2004)
- Floor of the Forest (2007)
Further Information
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