Kerry Clawson | March 07, 2014
Stage notes: Trisha Brown Dance Company in Cleveland;
As part of its three-year international farewell tour, the Trisha Brown Dance Company will perform one night only at 8 p.m. March 8 at PlayhouseSquare's Ohio Theatre. The tour, which celebrates the works of the legendary postmodernist pioneer, showcases her dances one last time on proscenium stages before they're translated to performances in alternative spaces.
Brown, 77, retired as artistic director of her company in 2012 due to health reasons. In more than 50 years of making dances, she created more than 100 works. Brown, who moved to New York in 1961, was immersed in the postmodern Judson Dance Theater - a group who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village who were avant-garde experimentalists.
Brown, who first performed with her troupe in 1970, was the first woman choreographer to receive the coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship "Genius Award." After she stepped down from creating new works in 2012, Dianne Madden and Carolyn Lucas became associate artistic directors for the company, charged with sustaining Brown's legacy by continuing to present her masterworks and also preserving her papers, film, video, sets and costumes.
In Cleveland, the company will perform her Set and Reset from 1983, whose sets were created by renowned visual artist Robert Rauschenberg. Brown, a frequent collaborator with Rauschenberg, is also a visual artist. Also on the program will be If You Couldn't See Me (1994), a solo-turned-duet that Brown danced with Bill T. Jones and then Mikhail Baryshnikov. Finally, the company will perform the last two dances Brown created: Les Yeux et l'aime and I'm going to toss my arms - if you catch them they're yours, both from 2011.
Tickets, which start at $20, are available at 216-241-6000 or www.dancecleveland.org. For more information, see www.trishabrowncompany.org.