Visionary company that helped create modern dance returns to Boston after 15 years for two shows in February
The Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC) has joined forces with the Merce Cunningham Trust to present Dancing with Bob: Rauschenberg, Brown and Cunningham Onstage in celebration of American artist Robert Rauschenberg’s centennial. This year-long tour will feature Set and Reset choreographed in 1983 by Trisha Brown and Travelogue choreographed in 1977 by Merce Cunningham. The set and costumes for both works were designed by Rauschenberg and each will be performed by members of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. The tour began on June 12 and 13, 2025, at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, and will appear in Los Angeles at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts May 6 -8, 2026. Tickets are on sale now.
Telephone noises and birdsong compete for attention in John Cage’s musical setting for Merce Cunningham’s cheeky “Travelogue,” from 1977. The Trisha Brown Dance Company (BAM; Feb. 26-28) performs this witty, sometimes surreal dance—its first foray into the Cunningham catalogue—alongside Brown’s “Set and Reset,” a cool, seductive work from 1983, rendered even cooler by the sonic backdrop of Laurie Anderson’s silvery vocal-and-electronic score “Longtime No See.” Both productions include memorable designs by Robert Rauschenberg: a video collage and scrims for “Set and Reset,” bicycle wheels and chairs for “Travelogue.”
In this Dance Teacher Magazine feature, Trisha Brown is celebrated as a groundbreaking choreographer who helped redefine modern dance through her process-driven, rule-based approach. Emerging from the 1960s Judson Dance Theater, she created over 100 works that blended structure, improvisation, and humor. Influenced by Anna Halprin and John Cage, Brown often used unconventional spaces and equipment, as in her iconic Walking on the Wall (1971). Her innovative methods continue to guide dance educators, showing how structure can spark creativity and expand the possibilities of movement.
A Trisha Brown company tour recalls a time when Rauschenberg, one of the country’s most influential artists, was changing and being changed by American dance.
Her company’s program at the Joyce Theater featured two notable works from the early 1980s and a Brown-inflected premiere by Lee Serle.
The Trisha Brown Dance Company returned to the Joyce Theater with an enthralling premiere by the French choreographer Noé Soulier.
"It can be just as exciting and moving and powerful to see a dancer make one small, subtle movement—that can be just as electrifying as seeing someone do a giant grand jeté." -Cecily Campbell
Cecily, TBDC dancer and assistant rehearsal director, spoke to Dance Magazine about making subtle movements shine. ✨
Critic's Pick! A premiere by Judith Sánchez Ruíz goes its own way but, like Brown’s work, shows an active, questioning mind and a sensual physicality.
When Trisha Brown Dance Company associate artistic director Carolyn Lucas invited Judith Sánchez Ruíz to make a new work for the company, it was a historic first: Since its founding in 1970, it has only ever premiered works by Trisha Brown. Sánchez Ruíz was a standout dancer with the company from 2006 to 2009. She started her own troupe, JSR, in 2010 before going to Berlin to dance with Sasha Waltz & Guests. After three years, she left that group but stayed in Berlin to focus on her own choreography and teaching. Her commission, Let’s talk about bleeding, premieres May 2–7 at The Joyce Theater in New York City.