Dance Constructions

Performance

Forti’s work has made a major contribution to the intersection of sculpture and performance and helped to create a sensibility for “what we know about things through our bodies”. As early as 1960, at Reuben Gallery in New York, she created the object-centred happenings See Saw and Rollers. A year later, she presented Five Dance Constructions & Some Other Things as part of a series organised by composer La Monte Young at Yoko Ono’s studio in New York; radically new dances made up of every day movements, performed in interaction with sculptures and objects.

From January 30 until March 28, this legendary series of Dance Constructions was performed at Vleeshal Markt by a group of ‘movers’.* Choreographer Sarah Swenson, authorised representative of Simone Forti, taught the Dance Constructions to them.

*The group ‘movers’ consisted of: Jasmine Attié, Robin Becker, Bella Bouman, Zahar Bondar, Jim Buskens, Jacqueline Cijsouw, Daniel Conant, Raluca Croitoru, Rosanne van Ede, Femke Gerestein, Roos Gortzak, Zsa Zsa Hessels, Tiiu Jansen, Abel Kroon, Lola Lasry, Maaike Lobeek, Chantal Minnaard, Sarah Soethoudt, Eothen Stearn, Nick Terra, Cole Verhoeven, Renske de Vries, and Sasha Zalivako. The selection was made in response to an open call. Dance experience was not necessary, however, applicants were asked to indicate if they could whistle, which was a task in one of the Dance Constructions.