Video History Project

People

Yvonne Rainer

Yvonne Rainer was born in San Francisco in 1934. She trained as a modern dancer in New York from 1957 and began to choreograph her own work in 1960. She was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater in 1962, the genesis of a movement that proved to be a vital force in modern dance in the following decades.

Some of her better known dances and theater pieces are "Terrain" (1963), "The Mind is a Muscle" (1968), "Continuous Project-Altered Daily" (1969-70), and "This is the story of a woman who..." (1973), and "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan" (2000, commissioned by the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation). Rainer's films deal with a number of aesthetic and social issues, such as melodrama, menopause, racism, political violence, sexual identity, and notions of disease. Her films have been shown at major international film festivals. Her most recent book--"A Woman Who...: Essays, Interviews, Scripts" -- was published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

In 2002 the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery in Philadelphia mounted a Rainer exhibition consisting of video installations, film screenings, and dance photos and memorabilia. Rainer is the recipient of a number of awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and a MacArthur Fellowship. Since 1972 Rainer has completed seven feature-length films, beginning with "Lives of Performers" and more recently "Privilege" (1990, winner of the Filmmakers' Trophy at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, and the Geyer Werke Prize at the 1991 International Documentary Film Festival in Munich), and "MURDER and murder" (1996, winner of the Teddy Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival and Special Jury Award at the 1999 Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival).

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"Yvonne Rainer." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/yvonne-rainer.

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Summary

Yvonne Rainer, born San Francisco 1934, trained in New York from 1957 and began choreographing in 1960; she co-founded the Judson Dance Theater in 1962. Notable dances include Terrain (1963), The Mind is a Muscle (1968), Continuous Project-Altered Daily (1969–70) and This is the story of a woman who... (1973), and After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (2000, Baryshnikov commission). Since 1972 she has completed seven feature films addressing social and aesthetic issues; Privilege (1990) and MURDER and murder (1996) won festival awards. Her book A Woman Who... was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1999; she received two Guggenheim Fellowships and a MacArthur Fellowship and had a 2002 exhibition at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery in Philadelphia.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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