Trisha Brown Informance │Jacob’s Pillow Dance 1986

Rare footage of a Trisha Brown’s “Informance“: a hybrid lecture-performance from 1986 that focuses on the dance “Set and Reset“ with music by Laurie Anderson and designs by Robert Rauschenberg. Narrating the dancers’ actions, and eventually joining in herself, Brown reveals the choreographic structures, stories, and inquiries that inform the dance, asking, for example, how one might remain invisible while standing in the center of the stage. EXCERPT from Trisha Brown Informance. Recorded at Jacob’s Pillow August 10, 1986. Performers are Trisha Brown, Dianne Madden, Lance Gries, Jeffrey Axelrod, Irene Hultman, Carolyn Lucas, and Randy Warshaw. TRISHA BROWN graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California, studied with Anna Halprin and taught at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Moving to New York City in 1961, Brown was instantly immersed in what was to become the post-modern phenomena of Judson Dance Theater. Her movement investigations found the extraordinary in the everyday and challenged existing perceptions of what constitutes performance. In this “hot-bed of dance revolution“, Brown, along with like-minded artists, pushed the limits of choreography thereby changing modern dance forever. Trisha Brown has created over 100 dance works since 1961, and was the first woman choreographer to receive the coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “Genius Award.“ She has been awarded many other honors including five fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, Brandeis University’s Creative Arts Medal in Dance, and she has been named a Veuve Cliquot Grand Dame. In 1988, Brown was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the government of France. In January 2000, she was promoted to Officier and in 2004, she was again elevated, this time to the level of Commandeur. She was a 1994 recipient of the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award and, at the invitation of President Bill Clinton, served on the National Council on the Arts from 1994 to 1997. In 1999, Brown received the New York State Governor’s Arts Award and, in 2003, was honored with the National Medal of Arts. She served as a Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor for 2010-11 as well as receiving the . Action Maverick Award presented by Elizabeth Streb, and the Capezio Ballet Makers Dance Foundation Award in 2010. She has received numerous honorary doctorates, is an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was awarded the 2011 New York Dance and Performance ’Bessie’ Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, Brown was honored with the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for making an “outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.“ Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, home to America’s longest-running dance festival, and recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts. To learn more about the Pillow: See an excerpt of a live performance of “Set and Reset“ performed at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 1986: Explore more dance videos online at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive: