MEGAN STEINMAN

TRANSMISSION OF TRIO A WITH YVONNE RAINER was a public program I conceived for the exhibition Work After Work, which examined how artistic production contends with economic conditions. 

Trio A is one of artist-choreographer Yvonne Rainer’s most famous dances. It is a cornerstone of the post-modern dance movement, and has been presented in numerous exhibitions worldwide.  Intrinsic in Rainer’s construction of the dance is a distribution system through instruction: anyone who had been taught Trio A could perform and teach the dance to anyone else. Trio A was reworked several times by Rainer herself and the members of Judson Dance Theatre, and Rainer’s own description of the dance details its transmission from one performer to the next. However, around 2003 Rainer decided that only certified instructors could pass along her choreography. 

For TRANSMISSION OF TRIO A, twenty participants were taught the dance by media and performance artist Sara Wookey, a certified instructor. Immediately following the instruction, Rainer, Wookey, the participants and myself sat and discussed ideas about transmission and communication via movement, the ownership of artworks and the laboring human body. That the majority of the audience had just physically experienced Trio A for themselves created a personal connection with the artist and added richness to our conversation. 

Images by Tatjana Bilger. Special thanks to Chloë Flores.