Trisha Brown Dance Company / Noé Soulier

In March, we are dedicating an evening to choreographer Trisha Brown, one of the most influential American choreographers of the 20th century and a pioneer of postmodern dance, with three works from over 40 years of her rich creative output. Celebrated as a phenomenon of the century, the choreographer stands for artistic complexity that combines the lightness of everyday life with grace.

Brown was part of the Judson Dance Theater in New York, an avant-garde collective that left classical dance traditions behind, integrated everyday movements into their choreographies, promoted improvisation, and understood dance as conceptual art. The three works we are showing mark turning points in Trisha Brown's career, reveal highlights and breaks in her style, and demonstrate how present her artistic work is to this day. The second work of the evening is a commission by Parisian choreographer Noé Soulier, who heads the Cndc (Centre national de danse contemporaine) in Angers. It shows how the view of Trisha Brown's work can remain fluid.

GLACIAL DECOY (1979) is Trisha Brown's first choreography for a classical stage and marks a turning point in her career. The work is reminiscent of a long summer and is her first collaboration with visual artist Robert Rauschenberg, followed by numerous collaborations with other artists. Rauschenberg's black-and-white photographs form the backdrop for five dancers who take to the stage with swinging, light-footed, powerful, and precise movements. As if in tandem—as if they were invisibly connected to each other at a certain distance—the dancers spread out, only to come together again shortly afterwards, emphasizing the contrast between freedom and dependence in dance.

The invitation in 2023 to Noé Soulier to develop a piece for the current company arose from a desire to highlight Trisha Brown's legacy by working with contemporary choreographers who identify with her artistic legacy. IN THE FALL traces Brown's movement vocabulary and combines it with Soulier's own choreographic principles to create a powerful and moving contemporary work.

The evening concludes with Trisha Brown's SON OF GON FISHIN' from 1981. She herself describes this choreography as the pinnacle of complexity in her work. It is her first work with music, in which the dancers form a group composition to the electronic and rhythmic music of Robert Ashley. Between freedom and structure, the choreography reflects the breadth of her working methods and her exploration of minimalism.