Minimalist” Dance, Social Critique
Revisiting Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton's 1963 Word Words
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11222744 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Meredith Morse (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 55-70 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Dance Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0149767718000360 |
| OpenAlex | W2905929515 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 36 |
In this essay, I reexamine Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton's 1963 dance Word Words , arguing that this apparently “minimalist” work in fact deployed “underground” strategies, those of female (and male) impersonation. Camp performance, an approach that Rainer soon disavowed, allowed Word Words to explore gender in ways that were not possible by the time Rainer developed Trio A . Word Words did not simply “overwrite” Rainer's (female) gender, as has been suggested alongside similar discussions of Trio A and gender, but destabilized the gender system's binaries: a deeply radical move, even in the context of other Judson performances using camp
Art · Art history · Context (archaeology) · Dance · Linguistics · Literature · Sociology · Word (group theory) · Word formation · Diversity and Impact of Dance · History · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy
A theory of parody
Critical Theory and Performance
Some Notes on Yvonne Rainer, Modernism, Politics, Emotion, Performance, and the Aftermath
The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory
A Poetics of Postmodernism
The Politics and Poetics of Camp
Mother Camp
The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader
Democracy's Body
Gender Trouble
A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958–1968
Reading Past the Heterosexual Imperative
Bodies of the Text
Terpsichore in Combat Boots
The Tower and the Line
Lesbian camp
Masculinity's Interior
The Ambulatory Aesthetics of Yvonne Rainer's Trio A
Dance and the Gallery
Avant‐gardes and Partisans Reviewed
Guilty Pleasures
Meaning in Motion
Conceptual Art and the Reception of Duchamp
Female Masculinity and Phallic Women- Unruly Concepts
The Minimal Unconscious
The Absolutely Fabulous but Flawlessly Customary World of Female Impersonators
In a Queer Time and Place
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |