Queer as adjective, verb, and noun: What might make a performance action queer? What is it to queer performance? What constitutes a queering?
We’ll begin our performance-making experiments with “the queer” by working within compositional frameworks culled from a choreographic workshop taught by choreographer Merce Cunningham in 1978 (I was a 19 year-old student), in tandem with considering queer implications in the work and lives of Cunningham (1919-2009) and composer John Cage (1912-1992), artistic collaborators and life partners who worked within the “open closet” of the NYC art communities of the mid-20th century.
Using Cunningham’s and Cage’s philosophies and practices as a case study we’ll explore possibilities offered by lesbian/gay/queer cultural analyses by pursuing different meanings of “queer,” including how these artists queered the aesthetic practices of their times. We’ll then bring those explorations forward through directed improvisation and performance-making experiments, centering on the queering of form and process – irrespective of whether the actual materials or performance actions are explicitly queer (though we’ll look at that possibility too). Additional points of departure for investigation will include queer excess, ambiguity, failure and futurity.
What to expect:
Directed improvisation; solo and group compositional exercises; discussion in large and small groups; optional readings.
Accessibility Notes
- This workshop includes auditive guidance.
- This workshop includes images/video/text displayed on a large screen tv.
- This workshop includes printed materials and digital readings.
To request ASL interpretation or Audio Description, please email accessibility@movementresearch.org, subject line “ASL/Audio Description Request, MELT Neil Greenberg” at least three (3) weeks prior to the first date of the workshop.
For access-related questions and requests, please contact accessibility@movementresearch.org, subject line “MELT Neil Greenberg.”
