Avant-garde filmmaker, dancer to speak

Yvonne Rainer, contemporary dance pioneer and co-founder of the Judson Dance Theatre, will speak at the Dance Program’s Friday Forum on Sept. 24, at 3:30 p.m. in Lathrop Hall. Rainer will talk about the retrospective of her work, “Yvonne Rainer: Radical Juxtapositions 1961-2002,” opening at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee on Thursday, Sept. 23, and running through Jan. 9, 2005.

A reception in the Virginia F. Harrison Parlor immediately follows her talk. This special event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 262-2353.

Rainer, described by essayist Ann Daly as an “avant-garde aesthete and utopian activist,” broke from ballet and modern dance traditions in the 1960s by eliminating a narrative storyline in her dances and replacing it with the mechanics of movement. She progressively began to address personal and social themes, including the role of women in American society and aging in America.

Rainer is also an award-winning filmmaker. In 1968, she began integrating short films into her performances and by 1975 her focus was mainly on filmmaking.

She teaches in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University.