ABSTRACT
Watching dance fills me with consummate satisfaction. I love the ebb and flow of a Mark Morris canon as it washes me in eddies of movement; the fitful sidestepping of four Trisha Brown dancers trying to stay directly behind a fifth dancer’s unpredictable, slippery progress across the stage; and the startling moment when Ann Carlson, engulfed in layers of old ladies’ clothing and taking a first shuffling step, cries like a newborn baby. These choreographers—and others equally inspired—are masters of movement, form, and theater. Because I am also a dancer and choreographer, I can’t help feeling envy (I wish I had done that…), but even more, pride (This is what dance can be!). Drawn to the choreographers who had made such surprising, powerful dances, I wanted to talk with them, to find out how they make their work and how they experience their lives as choreographers. My conversations with them became this book.
