ABSTRACT
Rosemary Butcher trained at Dartington College during the mid-to late 1960s, taking extra classes in Graham technique at the then new London School of Contemporary Dance alongside Richard Alston and Siobhan Davies. She went on to further studies in North America, studying the techniques of Doris Humphrey and Merce Cunningham. The artists to have the greatest influence on her, however, were those at the vanguard of American postmodern dance, such as Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton, Anna Halprin, Elaine Summers, and Lucinda Childs. Butcher returned to England at a significant time in the development of British dance, and although she is renowned for her idiosyncracity, she became, through both her teaching and her choreography, an influence on a new generation of British artists who were making radical departures from established norms under the umbrella title of ‘New Dance’.
