Judson Dance Theatre Analysis

The phrase ‘performance art’ initially emerged at the start of the 1960s to define time-based, progression work formed by councils of conceptual or ‘body’ art imbued with the new philosophies developing at that time . One group of choreographers in the summer of 1962 developed a form of avant-garde work that was truly ‘performance art’, the group then became the Judson dance theatre. The choreographers were not all trained dancers, some were musicians and visual artists which joined the choreography class of Robert Dunn. The interdisciplinary aspect of Robert Dunn's class, which took together thoughts and structures from the various arts as well as religious and philosophical ideas, would become an outstanding piece of Judson Dance Theatre

The assurance of freedom of choreographic choice by members of the theatre also directed to a highly distinguished awareness of the choreographic process, which was a guide to the creation of spontaneous, unpredictable dances that through parody, movement quotation, comparisons of styles, and verbal observation produced countless questions about dance and the choreography within the dance form. Questions of technique and its precision were thought of as less important to the work in Judson Dance theatre. This idea of having unprofessional performers gave the performances a basic, unprompted appearance, reducing the split between performer and observer. This idea is evident in Rauschenberg’s performances when he performs in his own choreographed pieces; this can be shown in Rauschenberg’s Pelican (1963), a piece which was the beginning of his choreographed pieces. Done in an old CBS TV studio, NY, throughout the First New York Theatre Rally in May 1965. The performance was done by Alex Hay, Carolyn Brown, and Robert Rauschenberg . From when Rauschenberg had decided to stage the first performance on a skating rink, he chose to produce a dance on skates, which would then allow Rauschenberg to disguise what he reflected as weak dancing ability. The performance of Pelican involved Rauschenberg and Hay wearing sweat pants and jumpers, they

His launch into new traditions of approaching subjectivity has changed all reaction to Nature. His force and energy have instituted a strength of beneficial aesthetic action through his career. He made influential contributions during the late 1960’s throughout the areas of dance and performance art . Rauschenberg achieved his expert work with great effortlessness in a countless variety of materials and mediums and with greater diversity . Visual art and performance art could be seen as very dissimilar types of expression, but Robert Rauschenberg accomplished minimizing the split between them by applying much of the same foundations seen in his paintings and combinations, in his pieces of performance. Through Rauschenberg including animals in his performance was a important linking of the performance and the visual, while also adding a larger degree of unpredictability to a performance, and his over all