In the history of modern dance in America, Trisha Brown holds a special place.
The choreographer was a student of Martha Graham and deeply influenced by the avant garde style of Merce Cunningham. In the early 1970s, she set a dance literally on the roof – 15 of them, actually, with a dancer on each roof – and the audience on yet another to watch the performance.
Set and Reset isn’t quite so avant garde. First performed in 1983, the dance was a collaboration between Brown, photographer Robert Rauschenberg and composer Laurie Anderson. This weekend, the UWM Department of Dance presents Set and Reset. The performance is the focal point of the Department’s year-long exploration of Brown's creative ideas, called Brown: Lineage and Process.
Melinda Myers, a former company member of Trisha Brown Dance Company, has been in residence at the university to work with dance students and other university collaborators to recreate the work. Myers, UWM Department of Art and Design Professor Leslie Vansen and head of the UWM Dance program Simone Ferro all spoke with Lake Effect's Bonnie North about the unique performance.
"Instead of a repertory piece that's only choreography and learning someone else's role, they have to step up and actually create their own role with the material that the original company used," Ferro said.
The Winterdances performances of Set and Reset run February 5th through the 8 at the UWM Mainstage Theatre.
http://youtu.be/iLa1qyt-Hn8
