This is an ongoing list of artists, choreographers and works that have changed, challenged or expanded ideas about dance and performance.
It isn't intended as a history or a definitive list. It's a place to start exploring.
Follow a name, a work or an idea. See where it takes you.
This page will keep changing and growing.
Betroffenheit, 2015
Dance meets theatre. Repetition, fragmentation, narrative and the movement between the individual and the group.
Explore: Kidd Pivot
https://kiddpivot.org/
10000 Gestures, 2017
Thousands of gestures, each performed once. What happens to dance when movement disappears as soon as it is made?
Explore: Boris Charmatz / Terrain
https://www.borischarmatz.org/
Primal Matter, 2012
Bodies, objects, images and illusion. A space somewhere between choreography, visual art and performance.
Explore: Dimitris Papaioannou
https://www.dimitrispapaioannou.com/
RUSSELL MALIPHANT
AfterLight, 2009
Movement and light become inseparable. Can light itself become part of the choreography?
Explore: Russell Maliphant Dance Company
https://www.russellmaliphantdancecompany.com/
One Flat Thing, reproduced, 2000
Fourteen dancers and twenty tables. Bodies, objects and an intricate network of choreographic relationships.
Explore: William Forsythe
Dance, visual art and space
Choreography in conversation with visual art, architecture, film, sound and installation. Where can dance exist?
Explore: Rosemary Butcher Archive
https://rosemarybutcher.com/
Café Müller, 1978
Bodies, chairs, walls, memory and repetition. Dance and theatre collide.
Explore: Pina Bausch Foundation
https://www.pinabausch.org/
RainForest, 1968
Movement, music and visual art occupying the same space without one having to illustrate another.
Explore: Merce Cunningham Trust
https://www.mercecunningham.org/the-work/choreography/rainforest/
KEEP EXPLORING
There are many other routes.
Artists lead to other artists. Dance leads to music, film, theatre, visual art, architecture, technology and ideas.
This list will continue to change and expand.
Start anywhere. Follow what interests you.
The show must go on, 2001
Pop songs, simple actions and an audience waiting for something to happen. What do we expect when we watch dance?
Explore: Jérôme Bel
https://www.jeromebel.fr/
Fase, 1982
Movement and Steve Reich. Repetition, rhythm and tiny differences accumulating over time.
Explore: Rosas
https://www.rosas.be/AKRAM KHAN
zero degrees, 2005
Kathak meets contemporary dance. Two performers, different histories, movement, text and questions of borders and identity.
Explore: Akram Khan Company
https://www.akramkhancompany.net/
Political Mother, 2010
Bodies, rhythm, live music and light. Choreography experienced as much through sound and physical energy as through movement.
Explore: Hofesh Shechter Company
https://hofesh.co.uk/
Atomos, 2013
Movement, technology, science and the possibilities of the body. How might thinking itself become part of choreography?
Explore: Studio Wayne McGregor
https://waynemcgregor.com/
Contact Improvisation, from 1972
Weight, gravity, touch and improvisation. Movement created through the physical encounter between bodies.
Explore: Foundation for Contemporary Arts — Steve Paxton
https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/steve-paxton/
Roof Piece, 1971
Dancers across the rooftops of New York transmit movement from one body to another. The city becomes part of the choreography.
Explore: Trisha Brown Dance Company
https://trishabrowncompany.org/
Trio A, 1966
Ordinary movement without spectacle or climax. What happens when dance refuses to perform for us?
Explore: MoMA — Trio A
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/119867
Parades & Changes, 1965
Tasks, scores, improvisation and everyday actions. Dance as experiment, process and participation.
Explore: Anna Halprin
