Critical Correspondence

MRPJ#17/memory/place: Extras

At first MR was a collective of people that would make things happen. We would meet at different people’s homes, decide everything collectively and share the work. Then once we started to get grants and needed to turn in paperwork and so on, I became the director, and was paid like $200 or something (laughter). Eventually Wendell (Beavers) became the director. There were out-growths of MR and our activities. Mary Overlie and I were invited to program a series in the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art and we did that for two summers. — From “Cynthia Hedstrom talks with Yoshiko Chuma and Anya Pryor” by Cynthia Hedstrom

memory/place is a rumination on both the history of Movement Research as well as the 25th Anniversary of Danspace Project. Editor Anya Pryor looks back at memories and the entwined histories of the two organizations. Many artists and administrators who have been vital to both these organizations at various times in their development provide their voices here. We’ve chosen to focus on Movement Research, home of Critical Correspondence, in our selected quotes and article – The Changing Countors of Movement Research, in which former MR director Cathy Edwards addresses some rifts between the founders of the organization and new directions it has taken since, while also illuminating some of this history of the organization at an earlier stage.

The work was in pursuit of alternate ways of seeing, understanding and living in the world. For myself, becoming a dancer was not an entry into the dance scene, but an entry into the natural world, a world in which I felt I belonged. In the last decade, particular movement patterns and qualities have been excerpted from the raw underlying research of the 70s and 80s and transplanted into a more traditional context. A typical “new dance technique” class at Movement Research today is a hybrid of what workshops and classes once were. Interests such as: smooth and disorienting contact lifts; loose-jointed, efficient released movement; fast and virtuosic floor-work, and others identifiable and fashionable. It is very encouraging that the innovations Movement Research has helped to cultivate over the last 20 years have gained recognition and currency throughout the dance world. In the effort to codify and market the elements of “new dance” a shallow, superficial syle may predominate. The power, intelligence, and broad-mindedness embedded in the initial questions at the roots of this work would be lost….

Movement Research has always faced an immense challenge: to mediate between the promise of the artist’s whimsical genius on one hand and the practical demands of a money-based marketplace on the other. I believe the spirit of adventure, a sense of humor, and space for intelligent play so much a part of the early work at Movement Research are exactly the qualities that will sustain Movement Research through the unimaginable changes of the next 20 years.

Movement Research, its name is its mission. — From “Invisible History” by Daniel Lepkoff

Daniel Lepkoff is one of the founders of Movement Research.

Any organization has to reinvent itself continuously, not that you should throw everything out and start from scratch, but I don’t believe in trying to hang on to things, I think they have to evolve and change, with the times and the people. One of the most important things Movement Research did was to create a place where people could exchange ideas and information, a place where people could debate. It has been helpful in shaping and educating artists… My vision for Movement Research is that it continue to evolve and become an even stronger force for dialogue and debate. I trust that MR will always take a fresh look at what’s needed in the community and develop programs to address those issues. — From “Cynthia Hedstrom talks with Yoshiko Chuma and Anya Pryor” by Cynthia Hedstrom

Cynthia Hedstrom was a founding member of Movement Research.