Spring Program
Trisha Brown
Judith Sánchez Ruíz
In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting the Trisha Brown Dance Company for the creation of a program presented at the Joyce Theatre, comprised of one performance by Judith Sánchez Ruíz and two works of Trisha Brown.
The Trisha Brown Dance Company returns with a program that pays homage to Brown’s collaborations with composer Alvin Curran. For M.G.: The Movie (1991) is a haunting memorial to Michel Guy, the French Minister of Culture and first director of the annual Festival d’Automne à Paris. The guiding principles for this choreography are enigma and time - not measured time - but the perception of time and its inconsistency. Also featuring Curran’s music is Brown's Rogues (2011). A poignant study in rhythm, timing, and kinesthetic transmission, the work marks a return to Brown’s exploration of unembellished physicality. In celebration of Brown's dynamic legacy, the company will also present its first commission. Let’s Talk About Bleeding, choreographed by Judith Sánchez Ruíz, under the musical direction of Adonis Gonzalez-Matos, performed by six dancers. Sánchez describes it as “a symphony of layers seeming to exist simultaneously…that make us question the arc of human existence.”
Photo : Rogues by Trisha Brown © Christopher Lindsay
Let’s Talk About Bleeding
Let’s Talk About Bleeding
by Judith Sánchez Ruíz
A distillation of Sánchez Ruíz’s storied 30-year international career in performance and choreography, this piece draws on a composite of her artwork and writing, and was created in collaboration with all artists involved. Sánchez Ruíz's dance pieces are existential in nature, and tend to layer their subjects structurally like geologic stratum. Of Let’s Talk About Bleeding, Sánchez Ruíz writes, “It is a symphony of layers, a meta-verse in which multiple universes collide, seeming to exist simultaneously, yet viewed in segments. The work intends to convey the notion of moving backwards in time, recreating realities that make us question the arc of human existence. Half the scenes are reversed, underscoring the idea of reversing time itself and deepening an understanding of being. It is an architectural orgasm of poetical constellations.”
A former Trisha Brown Dance Company dancer, Judith Sánchez Ruíz was chosen as the Company's first artist to receive a choreographic commission for her mastery of structured improvisation, as improvisation was central to Trisha Brown's work. Since the debut of ENCAJE, her acclaimed solo, in 2017, Sánchez Ruíz has been using dance "radial vocabularies," techniques that produce unexpected movements, creating channels of improvisation in each dancer. It is, she says, "an emancipation from within in the way we perform." She is also the author of a choreographic tool she calls "100 legs," based on the recognition that each part of the human body has its own innate intelligence; it encourages movement located at opposite points within the dancer's body, which generates kinetic tension. These very physical vocabularies are designed to offer insightful and meaningful narratives and cohesive structures.
For M.G.: The Movie
For M.G.: The Movie
by Trisha Brown
« For M.G.: The Movie, is the second piece in a cycle of work called "Back to Zero." What I mean by zero is the simple elemental actions of the body. I entered this cycle through vocabulary, seeking gesture and motion through subconscious impulses - as pure as possible, and unedited by the all-pervasive judgmental mind. One of the three basic phrases collaged in MG does achieve zero.
Michel Guy, the French Minister of culture (1974 - 1976) invited me to meet with him several times [and] we spoke of dance and art and his career and my career and where they intersect. The conversations would circle back and branch out… They seemed as if they were taking place outside of time, outside of the "what I already know." They lasted for hours. He had to adjust the blinds once or twice. I never knew what the meetings were about, and Michel died soon following.
My guiding principles in MG (which is for Michel Guy) were enigma, and time - not scientific time, but perception of time, and its inconsistency. »
-Trisha Brown
Photo : © Julieta Cervantes
Rogues
Rogues
by Trisha Brown
Rogues is a poignant study in rhythm, timing, and kinesthetic transmission. Accompanied by an original score by Alvin Curran, the duet’s simple form marks a return to Brown’s exploration of unembellished gesture and pedestrian physicality.
Photo : © Christopher Lindsay
About the artist
Trisha Brown
Trisha Brown (1936-2017) is considered one of the most inventive and influential dancers and choreographers of the second half of the 20th century. She founded her dance company in 1970. In doing so, she embarked on a 40-year odyssey along the many paths of contemporary dance, marked by improvisation and experimentation, pushing back the limits of the body and appropriating unexpected urban and natural spaces (rooftops, walls, galleries, etc.). A creator of more than 100 choreographies and six operas, she was also a visual artist, collaborating over the years with innovative artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Laurie Anderson.
Photo : Trisha Brown © Johan Elbers
Judith Sánchez Ruíz
In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting choreographer Judith Sánchez Ruíz for Let's Talk About Bleeding, a creation commissioned by the Trisha Brown Dance Company.
