Jul 3, 2014

Beginning this summer, The Kitchen staff will be presenting selections from our archives, much of which has remained entirely unseen for decades. Taking up subjects ranging from dance and music to exhibitions and talks, this continuing series will occasionally be accompanied by rare photographs and footage unearthed as we prepare to transfer these invaluable documents to the Getty Archive for their preservation. Please check in often to see what gems we uncover!    In 1981, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker traveled outside of Europe for the first time to study dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where the twenty-one-year-old choreographer quickly became fascinated by minimalist music and dance’s blatant rejection of narrative, the dominant choreographic st... Read On

Jun 17, 2014

This evening Jen Rosenblit participates in the season’s final Kitchen L.A.B., an appearance coming on the heels of her work a natural dance, which was presented at The Kitchen from May 29 to May 31. Performed by Addys Gonzalez, Justin Cabrillos, Effie Bowen, Hilary Clark, and Jen Rosenblit herself, the fifty-five minute piece probed the idea of the “natural” by exploring the overlay of language on bodies, a panoply of references, and the notion of autonomy within choreography. Such spatial interrogations were extended designer Sam Roeck’s set for the work, which featured a white stage ground and porch placed in the middle of the audience seating nearest the stage. KD: How would you say the porch impacted the audience’s experience of your work? JR: There’s an uneven relationship among... Read On

Apr 25, 2014

Part 2: Verb Dance K: Let’s talk about Verb Dance, the piece you did the first weekend. Can you tell me a little bit about how the verbs acted as directives for the dancers? Would you call them dancers? Or would it be performers? R: In Verb Dance we’re working with two highly skilled dancers and their initial task was to not allow movement to become dance in some way.  K: What is movement versus dance?  R: I don’t know if I know. We’re in a theater space, but we didn’t want to create the illusion that the theater commands in some ways. So through many different actions we wanted to be very literal about our presence. This is a black box was the first realization. This is a riser system, this riser system cannot be removed, and it is in fact what largely lodges the sp... Read On

Apr 25, 2014

During their exhibition Timelining, which closed on Saturday April 19, I had the opportunity to talk with Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly, the artistic partnership known as Gerard & Kelly, about their work at The Kitchen. In our discussion about time, memory, and movement Brennan and Ryan explained how placing two performers in Timelining beside each other serves as a metaphor for much of their work and personal practices. (K = Katy, B = Brennan, R = Ryan) Part One: Timelining K: Can you describe the score that you worked with for Timelining? I know that you came up with it together, as a score for your own partnership. Can you talk about how it evolved to what you then gave to the various partnerships that are involved in the exhibition? R: Timelining is a performance score to... Read On

Mar 4, 2014

The Kitchen mourns the passing of Robert Ashley (1930–2014), an artist whose work has been fundamental to the space's very existence in both use and ethos. While revolutionizing opera in our time, few if any others explored the possibilities of music and performance across disciplines, genres, and classical and popular cultures with such innovation, savvy, and majesty. We will miss him dearly, and express our deepest condolences to Mimi, Sam, and the entire lovely music family.   The Kitchen commissioned and presented numerous Ashley productions from our very beginnings. His last work here, That Morning Thing, took place in 2011. Photo by Paula Court © [detail]. Read On