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Yvonne Rainer's Journeys from Berlin/1971

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Ann Sargent-Wooster*
Affiliation:
Kean College

Extract

Before 1970 Yvonne Rainer's career conformed to the general outlines of the other dancers of the Judson Church group (T30). The dance sections of her multimedia events combined formal dance steps with everyday movements in a nonhierarchical order. In 1970 she traveled to India with the Grand Union. There she became fascinated with the classical theatre of India and for a time followed the touring Kathakali, whose performances lasted all night (T50). This experience with the impact of a storytelling form caused her to focus on narrative and on film. Both had previously been in her work, but they were now given greater prominence. By the mid-1970s she had stopped performing entirely and devoted herself exclusively to film. In a 1971 essay she wrote,

I'm no longer Interested in mixed media. You can either make a movie or you don't make a movie. I didn't make movies. I made choreographic exercises that were meant to be viewed with one's peripheral vision.

(Yvonne Rainer Work 1961-73)

Type
Women and Performance Issue
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 The Drama Review

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