Trisha Brown is among the most acclaimed choreographers to emerge from the postmodern era. She first came to public attention as part of the Judson Dance Theater in the 1960s, where along with artists like Steve Paxton and Yvonne Rainer, she pushed the limits of what movement could be considered choreography and dance. Over a varied 50-year-career, she is widely credited as having shaped modern dance. Having retired from leading the company in 2009, the Trisha Brown Dance Company continues to tour internationally, led by dancers and artists that have worked closely with Brown as part of the company for more than 30 years.

The world-renowned modern dance company will present two performances of Roof Piece (1971) for the Northwestern University June 4th Arts Circle Celebration. Originally debuted on the rooftops of New York’s SoHo in 1971, the work is among Brown’s earliest and most ambitious site-specific choreographies. This performance will work in direct relation to the specific features of the Northwestern Arts Circle architecture.

Saturday, June 4th

Trisha Brown Dance Company Performances of Roof Piece (1971)

12PM & 3PM, Art Circle Drive Rooftops, FREE

View And Download the Dance Company Performance Program

Q&A with Trisha Brown Dance Company

4PM, Block Museum, FREE

Full schedule of Arts Circle Celebration events

About Roof Piece (1971)

June 4th Dancers: Cecily Campbell, Olsi Gjeci, Leah Ives, Tara Lorenzen, Leah Morrison, Jamie Scott, Lee Serle

Working in relation to the architecture of the Arts Circle, the 7-member ensemble will improvise movements informed by Brown’s early repertoire, telegraphing these movement to each other across space. Dancers will be stationed atop the Block Museum of Art, Norris Center, Josephine Louise theater, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, and the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Arts. Over the course of 30 minutes, the performance will move from south to north and back again, inviting visitors to move with the transmission and experience the many ways the choreography brings the geography of the Arts Circle to life.  

“The choreography is testing how improvised movements appear at a distance and are transformed by transmission by a succession of dancers mimicking with variation what they see and how what has been transmitted at one end is different when received at the other end.  The dance tests the erosion of movement by transmission as in telegraphy.”- Babette Mangolte, Artist & filmmaker.