Message for International Dance Day

In an usual way, this year's message for International Dance Day was put together by the late Trisha Brown's close colleague, Susan Rosenberg, from the choreographer's writings.

Trisha Brown (1936-2017) was a dancer, choreographer, company leader, graphic artist, one of the most important figures of postmodern American dance. She graduated from Mills College in 1958, and later became a student of Anne Halprin. She was strongly influenced by the scenic work of Merce Cunningham and the music of John Cage.

Beginning from 1961, she lived and worked in New York. In 1962, together with her colleauges, she founded the epochal Judson Dance Theater, then, in 1970, improvisational company Grand Union, along with her own Trisha Brown Dance Company.

She came up with her first choreographies at the beginning of the 1960's (Trillium – 1962, Lightfall – 1963). She worked with significant artists such as Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Twyla Tharp, Lucinda Childs, and dancer-choreographer David Gordon. In the 70's, she created her site-specific “suspension” works such as Walking on the Wall and Roof Piece, and also her choreographies involving equipment, and dealing with time, space, and geometry.

In the 1980's, she collaborated with painter Robert Rauschenberg, sculptor Nancy Graves, and performer-singer-composer Laurie Anderson. In her 1996 work You Can See Us, she went on stage together with Mikhail Baryshnikov. In the 1990's, she did many choreographies to classical music. In 1998, she directed Orpheus by Monteverdi. In 2004, she created O Zlozony/O Composite for the Ballet of the Paris Opera, together with Laurie Anderson.

Trisha Brown died on 18 March 2017, just a few months after losing her husband, video artist Burt Barr. She wrote her message not long before her death, and so this short text became the spiritual testament and farewell of one of the greatest artists and thinkers of modern dance.

Tamás Halász

Below, Trisha Brown's message.

“I became a dancer because of my desire to fly. The transcendence of gravity was always something that moved me. There is no secret meaning in my dances. They are a spiritual exercise in a physical form.

Dance communicates and expands the universal language of communication, giving birth to joy, beauty and the advancement of human knowledge. Dance is about creativity…again and again…in the thinking, in the making, in the doing, and in the performing. Our bodies are a tool for expression and not a medium for representation. This notion liberates our creativity, which is the essential lesson and gift of art-making.

The life of an artist does not end with age, as some critics believe. Dance is made of people, people and ideas. As an audience, you can take the creative impulse home with you and apply it to your daily life.”

Trisha Brown

Source: the Hungarian Centre of the International Dance Institute

Foto: Lois Greenfield „Trisha with Stephen Petronio in Set and Reset, 1983