At 47 Canal

From September 4–14 the gallery will host a presentation of work from Dancing in the Kitchen, the institution’s innovative and longest running dance series established in 1978. Initiated by then Dance Curator Eric Bogosian, Dancing in the Kitchen, inaugurated a program organized around set of performances that hosted one choreographer a month who performed a new work across three or four evenings at The Kitchen. The program structure supported artists at various stages of their careers as they developed and presented new work to the public for the first time. The format of the series lent itself to a range of themes and formats such as dance festivals, artists in conversation, rehearsals, and varying durational showcases. This distinct approach to support and engagement created a space for experimentation and network for the New York dance and performance community that continues today. In 1990, The Kitchen’s Dance Curator Steve Gross, restructured Dancing in the Kitchen, re-naming it to Working in the Kitchen, and in 1995, the series title shifted again to Dance in Progress before taking the name Dance and Process in 2005, now known as The Kitchen’s longest running dance series to date.

This first program at 47 Canal will center around video recordings of movement-based works by artists Andy de Groat, Susan Rethorst, and Elizabeth Streb. Andy de Groat’s 1981 presentation at The Kitchen included Portraits of American Dancers, Dutch Circumstances (DUST), and (Gravy) a medicine of spaces. de Groat’s (Gravy), included in Focus, was accompanied by Julius Eastman's The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc (1981), and was conducted live by him. In December of 1980, Susan Rethorst brought The Life of the Wasp, a dance piece for sixteen women, to The Kitchen. Playing on Doris Humphrey’s dance piece titled The Life of the Bee (1929) and on the socioeconomic label “W.A.S.P.", Rethorst created a commentary on commerce and community. Elizabeth Streb’s Ringside/Fall Line (1982) comprised two dance works: Fall Line, performed with Michael Schwartz, was danced on a “hill,” a 35-degree inclined plane that required them to utilize their arms and legs for support. Streb’s solo work, Ringside, focused on the limitations of dance movements in a confined space. To demonstrate this, Streb performed a multitude of different actions on a slightly tilted disk. These videos will be on view alongside key materials from The Kitchen’s archive.

The Kitchen in Focus at 47 Canal will feature a second program with a solo exhibition of work performed by American choreographer and performer Sheryl Sutton from September 20–October 26, 2024. The Kitchen in Focus at 47 Canal continues the organization's exploration of site and cross-institutional collaboration during this “Without Walls” period as The Kitchen’s Chelsea building is under renovation and we operate from our temporary home at Westbeth Artists Housing.

The Kitchen in Focus at 47 Canal is organized by Robyn Farrell, Senior Curator.

Production by David Riley, Production & Exhibitions Manager, and Tassja Walker, Production Supervisor, The Kitchen. Research and administration by Alex Waterman, Archivist, Fernanda Escalera Zambrano, Administrative Assistant, and Gilberto Rosa-Duran, Communications Manager.