Dance

Trisha Brown has spent a career making dances that change and challenge the form, from her radical experimentations with the Judson Dance Theater to her compositions for the stage. Continuing a storied relationship that began with the beloved company’s BAM premiere in 1976, Trisha Brown Dance Company returns with a trio of works that frame the depth of her choreographic genius.

The program opens with the iconic work Set and Reset, commissioned by BAM for the 1983 Next Wave Festival. Propelled by Laurie Anderson’s driving score, dancers move with signature fluidity into and out of Robert Rauschenberg’s translucent set, playfully exploring instinct, edge, and invisibility. PRESENT TENSE (2003) is a spirited musing on human connection, with music by John Cage and a backdrop by Elizabeth Murray, employing tense and technical bonds that propel bodies across the floor and into space. And finally, Newark (Niweweorce) (1987) is Brown’s dramatic study of force and momentum, framed by a shifting set of multicolored canvases by Donald Judd.