Rhythm Field: The Dance of Molissa Fenley [Paperback]

Molissa Fenley, one of the most influential artists of postmodern dance, has had a lasting impact on performance. In dance, she has explored extreme effort and duration in highly crafted patterns and performed with an explosive, joyous energy that infused her work with endurance, balance, and life force. She challenged modern dance orthodoxy and redefined the character of a womans moving body in the late twentieth century, bringing postmodernized ritual to the stage.

Rhythm Field?is a vivid and probing portrait of Fenleys four-decade career, written by her fellow artists. The collection functions as a multifaceted look into one womans complex performing arts legacy. The result is itself an aesthetic undertaking that investigates the ways in which Fenley straddles dance traditions, art genres, and gender norms and has been a model to the field. The collection offers several scholarly analyses of the choreographers work, and is, above all, a vibrant record from the field.?Rhythm Field?sits at a necessary midpoint between criticism and scholarship.

Ann Murphy is assistant professor and chair of the Mills College Dance Department, as well as a dance critic for the San Jose MercuryandContra Costa Times.Molissa Fenleyis a choreographer and performer based in New York City. 

A Chronology of Molissa Fenley's Works

 

Foreword -Philip Glass

 

Watching a Friend Becoming -Bill T. Jones

 

Walking with Molissa Fenley -Ann Murphy

 

An Interview with Peter Boal -Ann Murphy

 

Intuition and Magic -Molissa Fenley

 

The Sovereign Soloist: States of Exceptional Labour andState of Darkness-Richard Move

 

Poems -Bob Holman

 

A Conversation with Tlã+