Yvonne Rainer

The Museum of Modern Art presents the East Coast premiere of Yvonne Rainer: The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there’s nothing left to move?. This ongoing work-in-progress interweaves formal dance with personal themes of aging and mortality, humor, and diverse texts—intermittently read by Rainer and the dancers—dealing with ancient Mideast dynasties, paleontological findings, and literary quotations. Language—here running parallel to the music (Gavin Bryars’s “The Sinking of the Titanic”) and dance movements, at times interrupting the latter—continues to be an important coordinate in Rainer’s work. All three elements—language, music, and movement—combine to create a somewhat melancholy ambiance. The performers in The Concept of Dust have been given the freedom to initiate and/or abort the movement phrases as they wish, making spontaneous decisions throughout the 45-minute duration of the piece.

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