In 1983 Trisha Brown premiered her new dance Set and Reset at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, which went on to transform dance history. It signalled a shift in Brown’s practice, where her fluid yet idiosyncratic dance style was developed into a multi-layered choreographic structure, rooted in a process of memorised improvisation. Set and Reset was also a testament to collaboration, with music by Laurie Anderson, stage set and costumes by Robert Rauschenberg, and lighting by Beverly Emmons.
This display reconceives Set and Reset as an installation. It features the music and stage set, documentation of a performance, and Brown’s rarely seen videotapes that show her building and rehearsing the choreography with her dancers. Her early experiments in memorising improvised movement can be seen in Babette Mangolte’s film Trisha Brown WATER MOTOR 1978. As part of the display, there are live performances by two London-based dance companies – Candoco and Rambert.
Trisha Brown Dance Company marks its 50th anniversary with a program celebrating Brown’s extraordinary creative partnership with visual artist Robert Rauschenberg. In Foray Forêt, with costumes and lighting by Rauschenberg, Brown employs a vocabulary of movements generated by the subconscious—what she called “delicate aberrations” —juxtaposing athleticism against subtle physical gesture, Set to the music of John Cage, the revived Astral Converted features a mobile set of lighting towers that use motion sensors to detect and respond to the dancers’ movements.
Our 50th Anniversary Opening Night UnGala Celebration at the Joyce Theater is the extraordinary kick off of the Company’s most robust international summer tour since the COVID-19 pandemic and will ensure that our beautiful dancers are safe during the season and ready to embark on the summer tour through France, Belgium, Italy, and Israel.
Let’s honor the Company and its extraordinary artists with a toast! Let’s keep them all safe!
The 50th Anniversary Opening Night UnGala will feature the seminal works of Trisha Brown and her artistic partnership with visual artist Robert Rauschenberg with Foray Forêt and Astral Converted. This special event raises essential funds to support the Company’s dance artists, its international performances and artistic partnerships.
Be a part of our kick-off Opening Night UnGala Event! We hope you will join us on May 24!
If you are interested in purchasing tickets, you can do so here or contact Jaclyn Stroud at development@trishabrowncompany.org or (212) 977-5365 x120.