Anna Halprin’s “The Paper Dance” from
Parades and Changes (1965)
Historical Reconstruction and Direction, 2017, 2018.
I had the honor to work with Anna Halprin to guide and direct her seminal protest piece, “The Paper Dance” from Parades and Changes (1965). This improvisational score became the structure for embodied conversations about oppression, the political act of reclaiming the body as one’s own, emancipating freedom in the natural body, and working collaboratively as a sensitive organism of dance artists.
The power and success of this iteration led to performances that included a 50th anniversary celebration of it’s US premiere at the Hunter Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, NY in 1967. Additional performances were featured in London at TrinityLaban, and Santa Barbara.
Originally commissioned for the University of California at Santa Barbara as part of the Radical Bodies exhibit in January of 2017. In June 2018 at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Anna’s alma mater, a second commissioned from the generous gift of Jodi Arnhold brought another creative process in guiding this work. For the first time, an all women group representing the first Dance Department in the US, performed at the Union Theater as part of their 60’s summer reunion.
First Visit. November 8th, 2016 - the day after the election results
15 Ravine Way, 2020