One of the watershed innovations of postmodern dance was the liberation of movement from its symbolic and narrative functions in choreography and performance. Freed also from the attendant expectation of having to be ‘ideal,’ the dancing body began giving shape to the invisible forces of its own production. Through their movements, dancers began tracing the formal limitations of scores, and started borrowing basic actions—like walking—from everyday life. In the process, this new movement opened up the art of dance to every kind of body. Movement became an ‘index’(1); a measure of something instead of an attempt at the thing itself, a way of knowing outside the limits of representation and mimesis.
“New Movement,” a group show curated by Helen Singh-Miller at The Cost Annex in Boston on June 7th 2019, explored ways in which contemporary art is building on this legacy of movement. The show featured the works of ten artists either living in or connected to the Boston area, showing movement in its collective, individual, appropriated, accepted, and even marginalized variations. Brought together through Singh-Miller’s perceptive curation, these works shed light on the power of movement to make us imagine, see, and embody the world otherwise.
Read the whole review here:
http://bostonartreview.com/reviews/new-movement-helen-singh-miller-argyro-nicolaou-boston/