Sara Wookey is a choreographer with an interest in the way that performance and publics interact. Her work is informed by her training in American Post-Modern Dance, European Dance-Theater and Laban Movement Analysis. Parallel to her creative practice Sara speaks and writes on issues of economy and value in dance. Sara is often asked to consult on dance presentation and archive in the museum and on public engagement with cultural institutions and government agencies. She is a certified teacher of Yvonne Rainer’s seminal dance work Trio A (1966) and a practicing square dance caller.
Project curated and presented by FADO Performance Art Centre
Workshop partners: Dancemakers & Public Recordings Performance venue partner: AGO Gallery partner: Gallery TPW
PERFORMERS: Aleesa Cohene Ame Henderson Andrea Nann Francesco Gagliardi Jon McCurley Margaret Dragu Martin Bélanger Mikiki Robert Abubo Shannon Cochrane Simon Rabyniuk Sara Wookey
The Project: TRANSMITTING TRIO A (1966) Over the course of a 5-day intensive workshop led by Sara Wookey — one of the few dancers authorized by Yvonne Rainer to “transmit” (to use Rainer’s own phrase) her works — a mixed group of dance and performance artists will learn several of Rainer’s dance works, focusing primarily on Trio A (1966).
Consisting of a 4½ minute sequence of movements that progress without repetition, phrasing, or emphasis and performed without musical accompaniment, Trio A(1966) is largely considered to be one of the originative works of the postmodern dance movement, as well one of the most influential works in the canon of 20th century dance. Rainer’s interest in task-based movement, the ephemeral, the un-spectacular, and rethinking the performer-audience relationship are characteristic concerns of both contemporary dance artists and performance artists.
The starting point for this project is the shared conversation between dance and performance artists around the distinctions between repertoire and reenactment, in particular consideration of how these modes of archiving in live art relate to the increasing interest in presenting performance art and choreography in the museum.
The results of the project are a series of presentations of Trio A (and other works in the Rainer repertoire) in a variety of contexts: a dance studio, a gallery, and a museum; as an open rehearsal, a single iteration, and a rotating relay.
FADO’s Transmitting Trio A (1966) project overlaps with Yvonne Rainer’s visit to Toronto where she will deliver an artist talk (Saturday March 21, 7:00pm) entitled Where’s the Passion? in the context of the AGO’s Radical Acts Unconference taking place on March 21. In addition, there are other activations to experience: Sara Wookey will be giving a lecture demonstration about Trio A and Gallery TPW presents a discursive series (March 20–28) curated by Jacob Korczynski and Kim Simon. Entitled, “…a container for mere possibilities that have not yet happened, a body in a state of becoming through time, or a structure for the expression of time as it moves both forwards and backwards at once.” the series responds to and thinks alongside the performances initiated by FADO, allowing the opportunity to see Rainer’s dance again within a constellation of conversations, readings and newly commissioned work.
THANK YOU. This project is possible because of the generous support of Dancemakers (Ben Kamino and Emi Forster) in making the workshop possible. Warm thanks to Public Recordings (Ame Henderson) in conceptualizing the project and helping to assemble the group. Thanks to the AGO (Kathleen McLean and Paola Poletto) for inviting this project into their activities. Thanks to the contribution of Gallery TPW as main host venue, and to curators Jacob Korczynski and Kim Simon for their keen thinking in organizing a series of discursive events in response to the project’s proposal.
SCHEDULE Dance is Hard to See: Capturing and Transmitting Movement through Language, Media and Muscle Memory, a lecture demonstration by Sara Wookey March 19, 7:30pm @ Dancemakers, Distillery District, 15 Case Goods Lane
Performance of Trio A (1966) by Sara Wookey March 24, 7:00pm @ Gallery TPW
Open rehearsals of Trio A (1966) March 22, 4:00–5:00pm @ Dancemakers March 25, 7:00-8:00pm @ AGO, 317 Dundas Street West March 28, 12:00-5:00pm @ Gallery TPW, 170 St. Helens Avenue
Above: Trio A rehearsal with Yvonne Rainer. 2015. Photo by Henry Chan. Below: Trio A dinner with Yvonne Rainer. 2015. Photo by Henry Chan.
Performance Yellow
This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?
