Simone Forti: An Evening of Dance Constructions

In the spring of 1961 Simone Forti presented a program titled Five Dance Constructions and Some Other Things in a concert series organized by her friend, composer La Monte Young, at the New York loft studio of Yoko Ono. These radically new dances created circumstances for the performers’ direct, non-stylistic actions. Each of the pieces was performed in a different place in the loft, with the audience moving from location to location to view them. Some of the pieces required elementary structures – a hanging rope, rectangular wooden boxes – which were placed throughout the loft like a sculptural installation. In 2004 the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles invited Forti to re-create these dance constructions at the Geffen Contemporary space, in conjunction with the exhibition A Minimalist Future? Art as Object 1958 – 1986.