Not quite 60 years ago I knew I could no longer accept the values of an art form that had shaped the trajectory of my life as well as etched its hierarchical underpinnings into the very neurons of my body.
Although I was already dancing professionally, I knew I was not being nourished by my experiences of movement and performance up until that point. Our body-based research will center around the continuity of your attention to the discontinuity inherent in the body-based experiments we will oversee together.
The workshop is arranged in co-operation with Uniarts Helsinki's Theatre Academy.
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Deborah Hay, born 1941 in Brooklyn, has achieved icon status among choreographers. Her work was formulated in 1960s experimental Judson Dance Theatre in New York, one of the most radical and influential post-modern art movements. Hay’s dances center on undoing the body’s reliance on learned behavior by enlarging the field from which a dancer can resource movement. She spent many years choreographing solo works for notable artists including Mikhail Baryshnikov. The choreographer William Forsythe helped influence her international career after seeing the premiere of her quartet The Match in 2005 at the Montpellier Danse.
Deborah Hay has been awarded many grants and awards including the inaugural and groundbreaking Doris Duke Artist Award in 2012. In 2009 Deborah Hay was decreed the title of Doctor in Dance Arts honoris causa by Theatre Academy of the University of Arts (Helsinki), for her extensive and still continuing work in the frontline of Contemporary Dance, as a performer and a choreographer, as well as an art philosopher in practice. On May 5, 2015 France’s Minister of Culture and Communication awarded Hay the title of Chevallier de L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres.
deborahhay.com
Kuva: Ralf Hiemisch