Working in small groups (with members of each class represented in each group) and responding to the collaborative video projects, each group will prepare/design a series of movement pieces utilizing some of the props available, if desired. These works may be either scripted or improvisational, or some sort of hybrid. They may have little or no movement; they may be nearly static or incredibly complex, or both, or neither. However, the project proposal is that every member of the group will either be engaged with the process through participating in the movements, or recording the dance through drawing. These drawings (extending from models such as Auguste Rodin's studies of Cambodian dancers from 1906, William Anastasi's Subway Drawings, and Robert Rauschenberg's timed drawings of the 1950s) may act as a record of the event, a score, a response, or a visual complement, like a prop or stage design perhaps.
Following the class, works will be posted in the second floor hallway, outside of HFA 278.
Further references:
Image: William Anastasi, Subway Drawing, 1993. Image courtesy Bjorn Ressle Gallery Inc.
Anastasi's Subway Drawings have been continued in an online project that invites participants to make drawings in the same manner and post to the site. Information and images on the project are here.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Robert Rauschenberg was a frequent collaborator with both Cunningham and Cage. He also worked with Trisha Brown and other choreographers, as well as performing himself. Here is a video of his work Linoleum (1967).
