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Grand Union (dance Group)
The Grand Union was an improvisational dance group based in New York City from 1970 to 1976. It grew out of Yvonne Rainer dance company, and her piece ''Continuous Project - Altered Daily''. Rainer's sole authority as choreographer began to slip in early 1970 when the dancers, at her invitation, began to bring in their own materials for the piece. By late 1970, new members had joined the group and the materials were improvised to a much greater extent. The company, which was still often billed as "Yvonne Rainer and Dancers" in the beginning, chose "The Grand Union" as a name to avoid any obvious associations with dance in order to inoculate themselves against charges that what they were doing was not properly ''dance''. To avoid problems with the supermarket chain of the same name, the group used the legal name "Rio Grand Union". Rainer, Yvonne. ''Feelings are Facts'', pg. 335 Dance artists involved with Grand Union included * Trisha Brown * Barbara Dilley * Douglas Dunn * Dav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dance Improvisation
Dance improvisation is the process of spontaneously creating movement. Development of movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative explorations including body mapping through levels, shape and dynamics schema. Improvisation is a free, seemingly unstructured, less technically strict and impulsive form that draws inspiration from everyday dance practices and influences. It is a movement technique that is capable of evoking dramatic and thought-provoking content just as well as more codified western dance techniques such as ballet and non-western movement forms. Dance improvisation is not only about creating ''new'' movement but is also defined as freeing the body from habitual movement patterns (see Postmodern dance and Judson Dance Theater). Dancer and singer Michael Jackson combined improvisation in both of those definitions, insisting that he had an interest in performing a dance to ''Billie Jean'' only if he could do it a new way each time. A lot of improvisatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dance Group
A dance troupe or dance company is a group of dancers and associated personnel who work together to perform dances as a sport, spectacle or entertainment. There are many different types of dance companies, often working in different styles of dance. Some companies are formed from members of dance studios or from paid professionals. Dance company members can range from as young as two years old up to 18 years old. Dance troupes may be formed for competition purposes. Many dance companies are established within cities to be near theatres or other performing art venues. A dance troupe will likely have performance costumes, sets or props, and proper footwear. A dance studio will more than likely be the location where dance classes and or practices will take place. History There is evidence that shows the start of dance troupes in Roman and Greek times. These groups were originally for musicals and performed in theatres. Dance troupes would perform for the high class as a form of en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental."Yvonne Rainer - Biography" ''The New York Times'', Retrieved 3 November 2014. Her work is sometimes classified as . Rainer currently lives and works in New York."Dia Art Foundation - Yvonne Foundation" , Dia Art Foundation, Retrieved 3 November 2014. Early life Yvonne R ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Union (supermarket)
Grand Union Supermarkets, later known as Grand Union Family Markets and often referred to simply as Grand Union, is an American chain of grocery stores that does business in upstate New York and Vermont, and used to do business throughout most of the northeastern United States. It operated stores in other areas of the country including the midwestern and southeastern states, and internationally in the Caribbean and Canada. The company was founded and headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and moved to Brooklyn, New York in the early 20th century. Grand Union moved again to Elmwood Park, New Jersey and finally to Wayne, New Jersey before the company was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001 and sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers. After C&S bought Grand Union it down-scaled most of its operations, keeping only a number of stores in upstate New York and New England open. The chain was sold to Tops Friendly Markets in 2012; in 2013 Tops rebranded the remaining Grand Union stores with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown (November 25, 1936 – March 18, 2017) was an American choreographer and dancer, and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement. Brown’s dance/movement method, with which she and her dancers train their bodies, remains pervasively impactful within international postmodern dance. Early life and education Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington in 1936, 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, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham at the American Dance Festival, then held at Connecticut College. Work Dance In 1960 Brown participated in an experimental workshop devoted to improvisation at the studio of Anna Halprin, in Kentfield, California. Subsequently, at the urging of fellow choreographers, Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer, Brown moved to New York to study composition with Robert Dunn, who taught ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Dilley
Barbara Dilley (Lloyd) (born 1938) is an American dancer, performance artist, improvisor, choreographer and educator, best known for her work as a prominent member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1963-1968), and then with the groundbreaking dance and performance ensemble The Grand Union, from 1969 to 1976. She has taught movement and dance at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, since 1974, developing a pedagogy that emphasizes what she calls “embodied awareness,” an approach that combines dance and movement studies with meditation, “mind training” and improvisational composition. She served as the president of Naropa University from 1985 to 1993. Early life and education Barbara Dilley was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1938. She began dancing early in childhood and by the age of ten was studying with Audrée Estey, who was the founder of the American Repertory Ballet and Princeton Ballet Academy. After high school, Dilley attended classes at the Jacob’s Pil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Dunn (choreographer)
Douglas Dunn is an American dancer and choreographer based in New York City. Choreography Dunn premiered his professional company, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, in 1976, where he served as artistic director. He was commissioned by various companies to choreograph works including the Paris Opera Ballet, Groupe de Recherche Choréographique de l'Opéra de Paris, Grande Ballet de Bordeaux, New Dance Ensemble of Minneapolis, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Repertory Dance Theater (Salt Lake City), Ballet Théâtre Francais de Nancy, Institute for Contemporary Art (Boston), Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (Australia), and Portland State University (Oregon).Kowa, pp. 221-223. Dunn uses many different choreographic elements in his dances which makes it hard to classify him into a specific genre of dance.Banes (1979), p. 187. He conveyed a minimalist approach in his work by using elements of silence, stillness, simple movements, text, pedestrian movements, gestures, wit, and humor. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Gordon (choreographer)
David Gordon (July 14, 1936 – January 29, 2022) was an American dancer, choreographer, writer, and theatrical director prominent in the world of postmodern dance and performance. Based in New York City, Gordon's work has been seen in major performance venues across the United States, Europe, South America and Japan, and has appeared on television on PBS's ''Great Performances'' and '' Alive TV'', and the BBC and Channel 4 in Great Britain. Twice a Guggenheim Fellow (1981 and 1987), Gordon has been a panelist of the dance program panels of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, and chairman of the former. He was a member of the Actors Studio, and was a founder of the Center for Creative Research. Gordon was married to Valda Setterfield, a dancer and actress born in England, who was for 10 years a featured soloist with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She appears regularly in Gordon's work, and has been referred to as his "muse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Paxton
Steve Paxton (born 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an experimental dancer and choreographer. His early background was in gymnastics while his later training included three years with Merce Cunningham and a year with José Limón. As a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater, he performed works by Yvonne Rainer and Trisha Brown. He was a founding member of the experimental group Grand Union and in 1972 named and began to develop the dance form known as Contact Improvisation, a form of dance that utilizes the physical laws of friction, momentum, gravity, and inertia to explore the relationship between dancers. Paxton believed that even an untrained dancer could contribute to the dance form, and so began his great interest in pedestrian movement. After working with Cunningham and developing chance choreography, defined as any movement being his generation whose approach has influenced choreography globally. He attempts to remain reclusive, except when performing, teaching a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valda Setterfield
__NOTOC__ Valda Setterfield (born September 17, 1934) is an American postmodern dancer and actress born in England. She is noted for her work as a soloist with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and for her performances in works by her husband, postmodern choreographer and director David Gordon, who died in January 2022. Perron, Wendy (February 2, 2022"Remembering David Gordon (1936–2022)"''Dance Magazine'' She has been described as his muse, and together they have been called "The Barrymores of post-modern dance." Their son, playwright, theatrical director and actor Ain Gordon, has worked with Setterfield on a number of projects as well. Life and career In England, Setterfield trained in ballet with Dame Marie Rambert and mime with Tamara Karsavina, and performed in English pantomime. She also performed in an Italian revue.Smith, Amanda (February 1981)"David Gordon: Keeping the Options Open" ''Dance Magazine'' In 1958, on the promise of a scholarship to study with José Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Communications Group
Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States. The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEARCH'', a theatrical employment bulletin, as well as trade editions of theatrical scripts. History Theatre Communications Group was established in 1961 with a grant from the Ford Foundation in response to their then arts and humanities director W. McNeil Lowry's desire to foster communication and cooperation among the growing community of regional theatres throughout the country.Schanke p. 188 Though initially run as a Ford Foundation administered program, TCG independently incorporated in 1964. The organization began with a membership of 15 regional and community theatres, and nine university drama departments under the leadership of Pat Brown. In its first decade of operation, other leaders included Michael Mabry, Joseph Zeigler and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
