Making their debut at Vivo Performing Arts, Trisha Brown Dance Company brings a program spanning decades of the visionary postmodern choreographer’s groundbreaking career. Performances take place at Boston Arts Academy Theater February 13 at 8 p.m. and February 14 at 2 p.m.
Each performance includes three works by Brown, representing distinct stages of her prolific career.
Created in 1979 by Brown and artist Robert Rauschenberg, Glacial Decoy marked the choreographer’s first work for the proscenium stage and a landmark collaboration between dance and visual art. Commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the piece features Rauschenberg’s black-and-white photographic projections and translucent costumes, transforming everyday images into a poetic landscape. Danced to silence, the work is a mesmerizing fusion of continuous, abstract movement and visual rhythm that upon its premiere expanded the possibilities of contemporary dance.
Son of Gone Fishin’ premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1981, this work is a hallmark excerpt from Brown’s Unstable Molecular Cycle, a series rooted in memorized improvisation. From six dancers, precise yet ever-shifting patterns emerge and dissolve, which Brown likened to ripples spreading across water. Set to music by Robert Ashley and illuminated by lighting inspired by Donald Judd’s sculptural designs, the work balances structure and volatility.
Rogues is a late-career work from 2011 that features two dancers in a playful yet deliberate exchange of mirroring and variation, showcasing Trisha Brown’s gift for structured spontaneity. The duet premiered at New York’s Fall for Dance Festival following an intensive studio process involving Brown, former company dancer Lee Serle, and Neal Beasley. The work grew out of Serle’s mentorship with Brown through the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
“For decades, Trisha Brown reshaped the language of contemporary dance, expanding what movement could express and where it could live,” says Gary Dunning, President and Executive Director of Vivo Performing Arts. “Emerging from the groundbreaking Judson Dance Theater, her work combined conceptual rigor with accessibility, using systems, repetition and collaboration to create something surprising and profound. Her partnerships with artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Laurie Anderson, John Cage, and Donald Judd helped redefine what dance could be. That legacy continues to resonate through the extraordinary dancers of Trisha Brown Dance Company. Welcoming the Company to Vivo Performing Arts for the first time, after a 15-year absence from Boston, is a milestone for dance lovers—a rare chance to experience the enduring power, pedigree and physical virtuosity of an artist whose influence still shapes the field today.”
“This program traces the evolution of Trisha Brown’s artistic vision, from her early collaborations with visual artists to the refined clarity of her later works,” says Kirstin Kapustik, Executive Director of Trisha Brown Dance Company. “Sharing these dances in Boston celebrates Trisha’s extraordinary legacy while showing how alive and relevant her choreography remains today. Through the dancers, audiences can experience the intelligence, generosity, and quiet daring that define her work.”
Celebrity Series continues its partnership with Boston Arts Academy (BAA), where students work with and learn alongside professional theater and dance artists. Throughout Trisha Brown Dance Company’s on-site residency, BAA musicians and dancers will participate in an artist-led master class during production week, attend an open dress rehearsal, and shadow production staff.
Additionally, a post-show conversation and Q&A with dance writer Christine Jowers, founder and editor-in-chief of The Dance Enthusiast, follows the February 14 performance.
Tickets from $62-$94 are available now at vivoperformingarts.org
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