Deborah Hay (born 1941 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York) is a

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

, dancer, dance theorist, and author working in the field of experimental

postmodern dance Postmodern dance is a 20th century concert dance form that came into popularity in the early 1960s. While the term "postmodern" took on a different meaning when used to describe dance, the dance form did take inspiration from the ideologies of th ...

. She is one of the original founders of the

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. The artists involved were avant garde experimentalists ...

. Hay's signature slow and minimal dance style was informed by a trip to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

while touring with

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

's company in 1964. In Japan she encountered

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

(aka nô) theatre and soon incorporated nô's extreme slowness, minimalism and suspension into her post-Cunningham

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

. Sometimes she also imposed stressful conditions on the dancers, as with her "Solo" group dance that was presentation at '' 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering''.

Judson Memorial Church

Hay moved to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she trained with

and

Mia Slavenska Mia Slavenska, née Čorak (20 February 1916 in Brod-na-Sava, now Croatia, then Austria-Hungary – 5 October 2002 in Los Angeles, United States) was a Croatian-American soloist of the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo in 1938–1952 and 1954–1955 ...

. She became part of the collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists who performed

happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

s and

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

dance performances at the

Judson Memorial Church The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It ...

and became known as the

. Hay regularly collaborated with Steve Paxton,

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

and her husband Alex Hay on choreographic methods. She and these experimentalists rejected the confines of

Modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

practice and theory and helped invent the precepts of

Postmodern dance Postmodern dance is a 20th century concert dance form that came into popularity in the early 1960s. While the term "postmodern" took on a different meaning when used to describe dance, the dance form did take inspiration from the ideologies of th ...

within the context of

Intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe various interdisciplinarity art activities that occur between genres, beginning in the 1960s. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to work ...

and Minimalism.

Bell Labs

In October 1966 Hay (along with other artists) worked with

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

computer experts in collaborative performances that led to 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering. This Bell Lab collaboration also led to the creation of a seminal piece of

computer art Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditi ...

that involved Hay:

Ken Knowlton Kenneth Charles Knowlton (June 6, 1931 – June 16, 2022) was an American computer graphics pioneer, artist, mosaicist and portraitist. In 1963, while working at Bell Labs, he developed the BEFLIX programming language for creating bitmap comput ...

and

Leon Harmon Leon D. Harmon (1922 - 1983) was a researcher in mental/neural processing, particularly regarding vision, who worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated. Harmon started his career as a radio serviceman and electronics hobbyist. In 1950, ...

's "Studies in Perception #1". It is an image of Hay, reclining nude, that used

typographic Typography is the art and technique of typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

symbols for

halftone Halftone is the reprographic Reprography (a portmanteau of ''reproduction'' and ''photography'') is the reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means, such as photography or xerography. Reprography is commonly used in catal ...

densities to portray her body. This image of Hay was printed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' on 11 October 1967, and exhibited at one of the earliest computer art exhibitions, ''The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age'', held at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from November 25, 1968 through February 9, 1969.

1970s–1980s

In 1970 Hay left

to live in northern

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

where she created ten ''Circle Dances'' that were performed on ten consecutive nights. No audience was present. In Vermont, Hay began her reflection about her choreographic method: the making of contemporary dance and how such dance ideas can be presented and preserved. Her first book from 1975, ''Moving Through the Universe in Bare Feet'' (

Ohio University Press Ohio University Press (OUP), founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest scholarly press in the state of Ohio. It is a department of Ohio University that publishes under its own name and the imprint Swallow Press. History The press publishes ap ...

), explains Hay's resulting ''memory/concept mode'' of choreographic creation/recording. In it, Hay emphasizes

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

narratives underlining the minimal choreographic process of her dance creation. In 1976 Hay moved from Vermont to

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

where she began developing a set of choreographic practices she called ''playing awake''. This choreographic method engaged with the movement of untrained performers. While developing the choreography for these dances, Hay instituted untrained group workshops in Austin and New York City. These workshops culminated in public performances in 1977 and thereafter.From these untrained group workshops, Hay, throughout the 1980s, created choreography for both trained and untrained groups while also making solo dances that used her signature

-inspired slow style. In the 1980s her choreographic style began to take on characteristics of

Tai chi Tai chi (), short for Tai chi ch'üan ( zh, s=太极拳, t=太極拳, first=t, p=Tàijíquán, labels=no), sometimes called "shadowboxing", is an neijia, internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits and medita ...

-like slow flows.

1990s–2000s

In 1994 her second book, ''Lamb at the Altar: The Story of a Dance'' (

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Press), Hay documents the unique creative process that defined these ''playing awake'' works. In the late-1990s Hay focused on performing solo dances based on her ''playing awake'' experimental choreographic method: such as "The Man Who Grew Common in Wisdom", "Voilà", "The Other Side of O", "Fire", "Boom Boom Boom", "Music", "Beauty" and "The Ridge, Room". Hay performed these and other solo dances around the world in the 1990s. ''My Body, The Buddhist'', her third book, was published by

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

Press in 2000. It contains her reflections on her interest in

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

and the big lessons she learned by paying close attention to her body while it was dancing. From 1998 through 2012, Hay conducted annual

''Solo Performance Commissioning Projects'' on

Whidbey Island Whidbey Island (historical spellings Whidby, Whitbey, or Whitby) is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington State. (The other large island is Camano Island, ...

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

and at

Findhorn Foundation The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain.''The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Org ...

Findhorn Findhorn ( gd, Inbhir Èir or ''Inbhir Èireann'') is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. A one hour

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about ''Solo Performance Commissioning Projects'' titled ''Turn Your F*^king Head'' was made by Becky Edmunds in 2012. It was produced and distributed by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. In 2000 Hay departed from her usual solo dance-making to create a

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo ...

for herself and

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; lv, Mihails Barišņikovs; born January 28, 1948) is a Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Latvian-born R ...

. This duet toured extensively with the ''Past/Forward'': a series of

Postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

dance and

performances that updated works of the

. In 2006 Hay choreographed “O, O” for five New York City

choreographers/dancers. This was followed by her work with seven French professional dancers. In

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, The Festival d’Automne presented Hay's "The Match" in 2005, “O, O” in 2006, and "If I Sing To You" in 2008, which was commissioned by

The Forsythe Company The Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company is a contemporary dance ensemble of eighteen dancers based in Dresden and Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded in 2005 as The Forsythe Company by American choreographer William Forsythe following the closure of ...

and toured extensively in Europe and Australia. In 2009 The

Toronto Dance Theatre The Toronto Dance Theatre is a Canadian modern dance company based in Toronto, Ontario. Described by ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' as "one of the foremost modern-dance companies in Canada", the company tours nationally and internationally and regula ...

premiered her work "Up Until Now". In 2010 Hay created a dance for six

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

dancers/choreographers called "Lightening". It premiered at the 2010

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Festival.

2010s-present

In 2013, her museum installation ''Perception Unfolds: Looking at Deborah Hay's Dance'' was curated by Annette Carlozzi for the

Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent coll ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. ''Perception Unfolds: Looking at Deborah Hay's Dance'' then travelled to the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. In 2015 Hay, in collaboration with

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

and

lighting designer In theatre, a lighting designer (or LD) works with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create the lighting, atmosphere, and time of day for the production in response to the text while keeping ...

Minna Tikkainen, created a long work called "Figure a Sea" for twenty one dancers that was commissioned by the

Cullberg Ballet Cullberg Ballet ( sv, Cullbergbaletten) is a Swedish contemporary dance company. It was founded by the modern dancer and pioneer choreographer Birgit Cullberg in 1967, who brought it to fame. After Cullberg's retirement in 1985 the company was un ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. In 2016 Hay presented dances at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's Center for the Art of Performances' Freud Playhouse. The program included her pieces "As Holy Sites Go" (performed by

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

faculty members Ros Warby and

Jeanine Durning Jeanine Durning is a choreographer, performer, and teacher based in New York. Her work has been presented in Amsterdam, Berlin, Zagreb, Toronto, and across the US. Performance work * A Good Man Falls (2002) * Part One Parting (2004) * half URGE ( ...

) and "Figure a Sea" (performed by the

of Sweden). "Figure a Sea" again featured the music of

. Both works were revisions of Hay's original piece, "No Time to Fly" that premiered at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in 2010. In 2016 Hay's fourth book, ''Using the Sky: a Dance'', was published by

Books. In 2021, Hay established her archive at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

in Austin, Texas.

References

External links

Deborah Hay Dance Company Official SiteDeborah Hay Papers
at the

Deborah Hay
at

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present for ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Deborah American choreographers American female dancers Dancers from New York (state) Living people Modern dancers 1941 births Experiments in Art and Technology collaborating artists 21st-century American women