Steve Paxton – a video amble

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DANSPACE PROJECT PRESENTS

Steve Paxton - a video amble

with Lisa Nelson and Cathy Weis

Friday, February 14 | 6:30PM

This evening celebrates Danspace’s 50th anniversary with remembrances of Steve Paxton (Jan 21, 1939 – Feb 20, 2024), a singular dance artist whose presence graced the sanctuary over its many decades.

“Do you think that our view of the world is prejudiced by where our head is habitually oriented?”— from Steve Paxton Talking Dance, 2014, Walker Art Center

What great good fortune that video technology became accessible close to the beginning of Steve’s adventure and that he exploited its feedback liberally for his lifelong research into thinking with the body. With so much to choose from to share with tonight’s rare audience of NY friends and colleagues, we narrowed our search to rarely seen performance documents, talks, and farm life. These excerpts are glimpses, and in no particular order. We trust the images to speak for themselves, to provoke kinesthetic memories of Steve’s miraculous dancing humor and pathos, and evoke his love affair with word-ing. Just that, to be moved and tickled by Steve’s radiant love of dancing on this Valentine’s Day 2025.

—Lisa & Cathy

SCREENING

A full screening of Nelson and Paxton’s PA RT (1983), Danspace, NYC will follow the amble.

PA RT (1983)
A dance by Lisa Nelson and Steve Paxton.
Danspace, NYC.
Music: Robert Ashley. Private Parts (the record), ©1979 Lovely Music.
Video: Penny Ward

The improvisational score for this dance, which Nelson and Paxton performed from 1978 to 2002, is the dance that arises within the setting/environment of the sound, the space, and the costumes. The structure is solo, duet, solo, duet. The movement and interaction of the performers is completely open.

CREDITS FOR VIDEO EXCERPTS

Scenes from home videos. Mad Brook Farm, E. Charleston, VT. 1981, 1985. Videos by Lisa Nelson; Kayaking the Clyde River, 2017. Video by Cathy Weis.

Material for the Spine – Steve Paxton, A Movement Study. 2008. Interactive WEB_APP produced by Contredanse, Belgium. Animations; Steve on glass; and commentaried video.

Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach played by Glenn Gould improvised by Steve Paxton. 1987. Dress rehearsal at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia. Video by Cathy Weis.

Beautiful Lecture / Air. Steve Paxton. 1973. With projections of porno film and Swan Lake; and Nixon’s live broadcast of “Checkers” speech. 14th St. Gallery, NYC. Video by Steve Christiansen.

Goldberg in Vermont. 1991. Steve Paxton in hayfield and woods. E. Charleston, VT. Video collaboration by Cathy Weis and SPaxton.

“…in a non-wimpy way” / Steve Paxton on Contact Improvisation and war. 2014. Film by Bojana Cvejic & Lennart Laberenz. On Vimeo.

Peripheral Vision (1975). Commentaried video by Steve Paxton & Nancy Stark Smith watching a Contact Improvisation concert in San Francisco in 1973. Video by Steve Christiansen.

Fall After Newton (1987) Contact duet Steve & Nancy with Collin Walcott on tabla. Camera: Jim Mayer. ©Videoda. Available through contactquarterly.com.

PA RT. Lisa Nelson & Steve Paxton. 1985. Montreal. With music by Robert Ashley, “Private Parts,” ©Lovely Music. Video by John Westinghouse.

Some English Suites. Steve Paxton. 1993. Wow Hall in Eugene, OR. Music: English Suites, J.S. Bach, played by Glenn Gould. Camera: unknown

Cry Dr. Chicago (1971). Steve was a featured character in the Dr. Chicago Film Trilogy by George Manupelli. Dance on stone staircase scene. ©George Manupelli Films with Pandora’s Pictures, 2008.

THANK YOU

Thanks to Videoda/Contact Collaborations, Inc. archive; Hahn Rowe, Liza Kastrilevich, Scott Smith, Adam Verge, Simon Murray, Kaitlyn Verge, Julie Martin, Davidson Gigliotti, Contredanse/Florence Corin and Baptiste Andrien, and George Manupelli.

Special thanks to Judy Hussie-Taylor for the invitation to honor Steve this Valentine’s Day and to all the folks at Danspace for helping it happen.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Steve Paxton, in his own words, “researched the fiction of cultured dance and the ‘truth’ of improvisation.” He was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater of the 1960s, the Grand Union of the 1970s, and Touchdown Dance (for the visually impaired, UK) in the ’80s. In 1972, he instigated Contact Improvisation which continues today as an international network of dancers who convene to practice (www.contactquarterly.com). In 1986, he began work on Material for the Spine, a technical approach to the body. His two publications: Material for the Spine-a movement study (2008 WEB-APP) and Gravity (2018, in EN/FR) were produced by Contredanse (Brussels). A film of his solo, The Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould improvised by Steve Paxton, was produced by Walter Verdin and KAAI Theater, Belgium, in 1992. He maintained a long-term collaboration with Lisa Nelson in PA RT (1979-2002) and Night Stand (2004-2013). His later choreography, for Quicksand, an opera by Robert Ashley, premiered in N.Y.C. in 2016. Born in Arizona in 1939, he moved to NYC in 1958, and then to a farm in Vermont in 1970, where he lays buried.

Lisa Nelson: choreographer, improvisational performer, collaborator, learner, editor-publisher of Contact Quarterly. Her practice of Tuning Scores is an approach to composition, real-time editing, and communication that is a danceway to collectively reimagine the illusions of our wobbly world. She lives on a farm in Vermont she shared with longtime creative partner, Steve Paxton. Reflections through interviews can be accessed through “sarma.be’s oralsite” and “Conversations in Vermont.”

Cathy Weis arrived in New York in 1984 and immersed herself in New York’s avant-garde dance community by videotaping the concerts of most downtown choreographers working in that decade. In 1993, Weis presented her first New York season with String of Lies, a meld of dance and video; she continues with these productions, redefining the boundaries of “live” performance. In 2014, Weis opened a performance space at 537 Broadway. Eleven years later “Sundays on Broadway” has grown into a valued performance venue for downtown artists.

Danspace Project pays respect to Lenape peoples. We acknowledge that this work is situated on the Lenape island of Manhattan (Mannahatta) in Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland. We pay respect to Lenape land, water, and ancestors past, present and future.

ABOUT DANSPACE PROJECT

Danspace Project presents new work in dance, supports a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work, encourages experimentation, and connects artists to audiences.

For 50 years, Danspace Project has supported a vital community of contemporary dance artists in an environment unlike any other in the United States. Located in the historic St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Danspace shares its facility with the Church, The Poetry Project, and New York Theatre Ballet. Danspace Project’s Commissioning Initiative has commissioned nearly 600 new works since its inception in 1994.

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