Judson Dance Theater

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Simone Forti. _Huddle_, 1961. Performance. 10 min. Committee on Media and Performance Art Funds. © 2018 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Performed in _Performance 2: Simone Forti_, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 7 - 8, 2009 Digital image: © 2018 Yi-Chun Wu/The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Simone Forti. Slant Board/Huddle. 1961

Simone Forti. Huddle, 1961. Performance. 10 min. Committee on Media and Performance Art Funds. © 2018 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Performed in Performance 2: Simone Forti, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 7 - 8, 2009 Digital image: © 2018 Yi-Chun Wu/The Museum of Modern Art, New York

YVONNE RAINER: In the spring of ‘61, Simone Forti had a whole evening at Yoko Ono's Loft. And Robert Morris had made all these things for her: A slanted platform, and a box under which you could disappear, a hanging rope.

SIMONE FORTI: We didn't know move by move what we were going to do, but we knew, for instance, in Slant Board that we were going to be on this inclined plane and that holding these ropes would help us stay on it. And I was interested in, in the beauty of people doing this and how they’d shift their weight and grab hold and see what the next move might be.

By the time I was invited to Yoko's loft, I was thinking more like sculptures and space. I think that's the first time we did a Huddle. About seven people stand close together and form a structure together for about 10 minutes as different individuals climb over the top and join it again never really breaking away from the form. It's a physical action and it's a sculpture.