In Lucinda Childs’s (American, b. 1940) solo work of the early 1960s, she derived movements from the manipulation of commonplace objects like bed sheets and hair rollers. Childs performed her first work, Pastime (1963), a three-part dance set to Philip Corner’s recorded score of water sounds, in 1963 at Judson Memorial Church. After forming the Lucinda Childs Dance Company in 1973, she choreographed Calico Mingling (1976) and Radial Courses (1976), both of which consist of four dancers moving in geometric patterns without musical accompaniment. Katema (1978), the final work in this performance program, was originally a solo, which Childs recently reconfigured as a quartet. As in ballet or military ceremonies, the group formations in Childs’s works of the 1970s projected what Village Voice critic Jill Johnston described as a “hard-edge concentrated impassivity.”
Performed by members of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company: Robert Mark Burke, Lucinda Childs, Katie Dorn, Kyle Gerry, Sarah Hillmon, Vincent McCloskey, Sharon Milanese, Lonnie Poupard Jr., Caitlin Scranton, Shakirah Stewart
The artist gratefully acknowledges Pomegranate Arts, longtime producers of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company.
