PHILADELPHIA — The Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series presents the Philadelphia premiere of Behold Bold Sam Dog and the world premiere of 208 East Broadway Part 5, part of Susan Rethorst: Inquiring Mind/Choreographic Mind, an exploration into the artistic process of acclaimed New York choreographer and dancer Susan Rethorst, a recent Philadelphia transplant. Rethorst’s work has been called “meticulously made, sensually satisfying and thrumming with possibilities” by The New York Times. Performances take place February 22–24, 2013.
On Saturday, February 23, Danspace Project’s Judy Hussie-Taylor will curate a day of dance focusing on Rethorst’s career in Bryn Mawr’s Goodhart Hall. Rethorst’s choreographic approach includes ideas such as “collaboration with circumstance” influenced, in part, by John Cage’s explorations of chance and circumstance and the teachings of choreographer Judith Dunn. Cage will be represented through the performative lecture “How to Get Started,” a structured improvisation conceived by Cage in which he addressed the “creative process, and improvisation, a subject about which he had long been deeply ambivalent,” according to Slought Foundation’s director Aaron Levy. “This amounted to an experiment having to do with thinking in public before a live audience.”
In considering Rethorst’s thinking around choreographic and poetic minds (her recent book A Choreographic Mind was named “Best of 2012” by the New Yorker magazine) Hussie-Taylor has invited four artists to think in public before a live audience for a unique iteration of Cage’s piece. Presenting will be two “choreographic minds”, Elizabeth Streb and Douglas Dunn, and two “poetic minds” Anne Waldman andClaudia La Rocco, frequent contributor to The New York Times who will each engage with Cage’s instructions. How To Get Started is a permanent installation created and presented in collaboration with the Slought Foundation in partnership with the John Cage Trust. Rethorst’s dance/film installations can be viewed from 4 pm - 7 pm between performances of 208 East Broadway and Behold Bold Sam Dog.
Bryn Mawr’s Campus is located at 101 N. Merion Ave. General admission for performances is $20, $18 for seniors, $10 for students with ID and Dance Pass holders, and $5 for children under 12. Day pass for events on Saturday, February 23 is $45 and includes dinner. Tickets and information: brynmawr.edu/arts/series.html or 610-526-5210.
RESIDENCY EVENTS SCHEDULE & INFORMATION
Tuesday February 19, 2:15 – 3:45 p.m.
Master Class in Composition with Vicky Shick
Location: Bryn Mawr College, Pembroke Dance Studio.
Reservations requested: reservations [at] brynmawr [dot] edu or 610-526-5210
Wednesday, February 20, TBA
Open Rehearsal for 208 East Broadway, Part 5
Location: Bryn Mawr College, McPherson Auditorium in Goodhart Hall
Thursday, February 21, 4:00 pm – 5:30 p.m.
Master Class in Technique with Jodi Melnick
Location: Bryn Mawr College, Pembroke Dance Studio
Reservations requested: reservations [at] brynmawr [dot] edu or 610-526-5210
Friday, February 22, 8 p.m.
Behold Bold Sam Dog
Location: Bryn Mawr College, Hepburn Teaching Theater in Goodhart Hall
Saturday, February 23 (more info: http://rethorst.brynmawr.edu/)
Day of Dance at Bryn Mawr College in Goodhart Hall
12:30p.m – 2:00p.m., How to Get Started
with Elizabeth Streb and Claudia La Rocco in Hepburn Teaching Theater
3:00 p.m., 208 East Broadway Part 5 (premiere) in McPherson Auditorium
4:00 – 7:00p.m., dance/film installations
with Susan Rethorst in McPherson Auditorium
2:00 – 3:00p.m. and 4:00 – 8:00p.m. Exhibition, Glass lobby
5:00 – 6:30p.m. How to Get Started
with Anne Waldman and Douglas Dunn in Hepburn Teaching Theater
5:45 – 7:45 Dinner in Common Room
8:00p.m. Behold Bold Sam Dog inHepburn Teaching Theater
9:00p.m. Philly Performance Club
Led by Claudia La Rocco, frequent contributor to the New York Times, in Common Room
Sunday, February 24, 3 p.m
208 East Broadway Part 5
Location: Bryn Mawr College, McPherson Auditorium in Goodhart Hall
March TBA
Wreckings/Coda with selected area dance companies
ABOUT SUSAN RETHORST
Rethorst began her study of modern dance at an early age under Erika Thimey, a contemporary of Mary Wigman. She then studied with Judith Dunn at Bennington College, laying the groundwork for her artistic sensibility. Rethorst has been creating dances out of New York City since 1975 and teaching choreography while creating work throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and the U.S. since 1995. She has lectured at Dartington College in the U.K., Arizona State University, New York University, and the Amsterdam School of the Arts.
Rethorst was among the first to receive a New York Dance and Performance Award (‘Bessie’) for Outstanding Achievement in 1985. In further recognition of her choreographic achievements, she has been the recipient of many grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1979-1989, 1992-1995), as well as support from the Creative Artist’s Public Service Program (1979), the New York State Council on the Arts (1979-1983), the Foundation for Contemporary Performance (1988 and 2003), the New York Foundation for the Arts (1989,1993), the Ernie Pagnano Memorial Fund (1991), the Joyce Mertz Gilmore Foundation (1992), and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1999). In 2008, Rethorst received her second Bessie for 208 East Broadway: Suitcase Dreams and in 2010 she received the prestigious Alpert Award.
In 2005, Rethorst started a summer program devoted to the study of choreography in Pennsylvania co-sponsored by Wilson College: Studio Upson in Pennsylvania (SUPA). A mid-career retrospective of her work, Susan Rethorst: Retro(intro)spective, was presented at Danspace in 2011, and her book A Choreographic Mind: Autobodygraphical Writings was published by the Theater Academy of Helsinki in April of 2012.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This presentation of Susan Rethorst: Inquiring Mind/Choreographic Mind is part of Susan Rethorst/ Moving in Philadelphia 2013-2014, which will continue through a second collaboration with Philadelphia’s Group Motion and Philadelphia Dance Projects. Support for these projects has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.
