ANA JANEVSKI: Judson embraced untrained dancers, giving visual artists like Robert Rauschenberg the opportunity to create and perform his own dances. Pelican was his first piece of choreography.
It took place in an abandoned roller skating rink. Rauschenberg and other dancers wheeled around the rink on bicycles and roller skates wearing large parachutes. Judson dancer Alex Hay:
ALEX HAY: I hadn’t skated in years and years and years, but you don’t forget it, and I guess Bob was the same way. It was sort of like a scary piece to do because we had these big cargo chutes that were extended on steel rods, and we had backpacks. The problem was when we had to circle around Carolyn Brown and not engage these two cargo chutes. But we managed quite well. We didn’t collide or fall down—I guess that was good.
ANA JANEVSKI: The piece was performed to a soundtrack that Rauschenberg made of found sounds, like telephones ringing, cars honking, and bits of old time music.