"Dance" by Lucinda Childs

By CK Woflson
Published: July 23, 2009

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The upper East Side Manhattan-bred choreographer, Lucinda Childs, is one of the most admired avant-garde performer-choreographers of postmodern dance. Among her accomplishments and honors: recipient of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, choreographer for Mikhail Baryshnikov, collaborator with Merce Cunningham, Robert Wilson, Philip Glass, Frank Gehry, Robert Mapplethorpe, founding member of the Judson Dance Theater in the '60s, commissioned by companies including the Paris Opéra Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet, Lyon Opéra Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the Geneva Opera Ballet, Ballet du l'Opéra du Rhin, and the Boston Ballet. And for the past five years she has quietly lived year-round in Chilmark.

Dancers at The Yard's production of "Dance" perform in front of Sol LeWitt's film - made 30 years ago - of dancers who move in counterpart to them. The filmed dancers appear in a variation of size, shapes, and movement. Photo by Sally Cohn

"My grandmother came in the '40s," Ms. Childs says. "My parents loved the Island, and they bought a house in Edgartown. One day I came back and was amazed at how wonderful it looked. It was so beautiful, especially up-Island. I love it here."

Claiming she finds ample creative inspiration, and admitting she goes unrecognized - "and that feels comfortable" - Ms. Childs says, "I don't feel isolated here. I've met a lot of dancers, people I've met through The Yard, and artists in general."

After this weekend, however, the modest up-Island resident who is known for giving definition to a style of elegantly minimalist, contemporary dance will most likely have blown her local cover.

Lucinda Childs, who choreographed two ballets for Mikhail Baryshnikov, watches as he rehearses.

"Dance," Ms. Childs's merging of live and filmed dancers, with the original film by artist Sol LeWitt and score by Phillip Glass, will be performed at Martha's Vineyard Performing Arts Center on Saturday and Sunday, July 25 and 26. Considered a pivotal American masterpiece, the historic collaboration between Ms. Childs, Mr. LeWitt, and Mr. Glass, marks its 30th anniversary with this restoration.

A technical achievement executed decades before the age of multi-media presentations, the performance displays Ms. Child's geometric simplicity of movement set to Mr. Glass's complex composition. Dancers, including a soloist taking the counterpart role to the filmed image of Ms. Childs dancing 30 years ago, perform the hour-long piece in front of Mr. LeWitt's film. The interplay between shapes, movements, even the altered sizes of the filmed dancers create patterns of shape and movement, repetition and variation with the live dancers.

There is dramatic interaction between them as they draw grids and designs across the stage in small leaps and measured turns. In either counterpoint or unison, the dancers, in increasingly challenging displays, are carried forth in ripples of mood and movement by the music.

"They don't touch, but the dancers are very connected in the energy of the interaction and the space between them," Ms. Childs explains.

Soft-spoken and deferential, the 69-year-old Ms. Childs directed this weekend's performance. Rather than comment on seeing herself projected on the screen performing 30 years ago, she says one of the joys of watching Mr. LeWitt's film is admiring his work: "Every time I see it, I see different things - the angles, shapes, how he placed the camera,' she says. "It's really a pleasure."

And, Lucinda Childs adds, "Now, the question for me is how to bring this work to other dancers."

"Dance," Performing Art Centers at M.V. Regional High School. Sat., July 25, 6 pm. Gala performance (dinner, champagne after-party), Sun., July 26, 6 pm. Presented by The Yard in partnership with Bard College. Made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts. For reservations and ticket prices, call 508-645-9662.