Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A was performed for the first time on 10 Jan 1966 at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village by three dancers – David Gordon, Steve Paxton and Rainer herself. (The above film was made in 1978.)
Trio A is one of Rainer’s most famous pieces of choreography and was initially part of a larger work entitled The Mind is a Muscle. Rainer’s minimalist aesthetic stripped dance of its drama and entertainment value in favour of presenting the body and its movements as objects.
In 1965 Rainer composed her “No Manifesto” which lays bare the intentions behind much of her early choreography:
"No to spectacle. No to virtuosity. No to transformations and magic and make-believe. No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image. No to the heroic. No to the anti-heroic. No to trash imagery. No to involvement of performer or spectator. No to style. No to camp. No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer. No to eccentricity. No to moving or being moved."
I would describe Yvonne Rainer's Trio A as very simple and contains clear movements. I think her choreography looks improvised but you can see clearly that she is demonstrating pedestrian movements throughout. There is no technical movement used at all so looks quirky and strange. She used very plain and soft dynamics in the piece.
ReplyDeleteI think that she has done this because she originally said that anyone can dance; you don't have to have years of training and any movement can be danced.
By the quote that Rainer stated; I think that she is saying there are no specific boundaries in dance. You do not have to have a purpose in which you are dancing, no technique has to be involved. Just dance simple everyday movements and that is enough to call it dance.