Here, Yvonne Rainer instructs two solo dancers—Shelley Senter and Linda K. Johnson—who are rehearsing Trio A (1966). The dancers have already memorized the basic outline of the choreography, and so Rainer focuses on fine-tuning their continuity of line and managing the harshness and rigidity of individual movements. Fluidity of motion and maintaining a natural affect are critical. The dancers unwittingly overemphasize each individual position in their rehearsal, whereas Rainer desires a fluid performance without clear distinction between the individual positions of the limbs. Toward the beginning of the recording, she spends several minutes clarifying a single motion: the drop of the right leg into a falling lean. “It is not a [parallel] passé,” she says, referring to the specialized vocabulary of ballet. Rather, using quotidian language, she describes it as a more fluid motion of the foot down to the ground by the left foot, preceded by a momentary suspension and followed by a fall forward. The whole gesture should be executed with an emphasis on cultivating and moving with the body’s organic, unexaggerated momentum.
Used with Permission. © Yvonne Rainer.
