Yvonne Rainer

Last week, the influential Yvonne Rainer spoke at the grad building. Famous for her involvement in the creation and exploration of modern dance, Rainer has grown older and seen her roles change. In the 1960s she worked in the same realm as other modern dancers such Merce Cunningham and Steve Paxton.

Her dances focused on the involvement of everyday movements into the medium of dance. Her pieces did not glorify these movement or aggrandize them. Instead, they simply became menial parts of the performance. Rainer's talk focused on these everyday movements and the expressiveness they create. Simply standing in front of the room, she argued, can be as expressive as striking a complex pose in front of a room. At one point in the lecture, she interrupted herself to scream the word "passion". Seconds later she spoke the word in her normal voice. She proceeded to argue that both performances of the word are expressive. Loudness or force has little to do with level of expression.

First performed in 1966, Rainer's most famous work is the 3-person dance, Trio A. The dance is based around fairly mechanical actions and is taught to dancers to this day. Rainer acknowledged that the dance is always a work in progress. She can always find something to critique in the dancers performing the dance today. Performed without music, the speed at which the dance is moves can be complex. To Rainer, the dance must be slow as to emphasize the movements and poses but not too slow as to seem meditative. While some dance is meant to be a meditation, Rainer is adamant that Trio A is not one of those dances.

One of the important characteristics of dance is the temporal nature of the medium. A dance will be performed slightly different each performance even if the same person performs it. When different people perform the dance, they add small parts of their demeanor and posture to the dance. Rainer says that she never corrects the posture of her dancers and allows this small part of the dance to remain natural. Age also plays a large role in how a dance is performed. While originally Rainer performed all her own dances, she is now over 70 years old. Her body will no longer allow her to perform many of her dances. She considers the age of her dancers an interesting contemplation as she composes her dances. With older dancers, she considers the limitations of their bodies interesting problems, much like design challenges. She must work around this or emphasize it in the dance as a commentary on age.

Below is a sample performance of Trio A.