Lamb at the Altar

The Story of a Dance

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Classical & Opera, Ballet, Music Styles, Dance
Cover of the book Lamb at the Altar by Deborah Hay, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Deborah Hay ISBN: 9780822399742
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: May 18, 1994
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Deborah Hay
ISBN: 9780822399742
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: May 18, 1994
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

"The intention of my work is to dislodge assumptions about the fixity of the three-dimensional body."—Deborah Hay

Her movements are uncharacteristic, her words subversive, her dances unlike anything done before—and this is the story of how it all works. A founding member of the famed Judson Dance Theater and a past performer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Deborah Hay is well known for choreographing works using large groups of trained and untrained dancers whose surprising combinations test the limits of the art. Lamb at the Altar is Hay’s account of a four-month seminar on movement and performance held in Austin, Texas, in 1991. There, forty-four trained and untrained dancers became the human laboratory for Hay’s creation of the dance Lamb, lamb, lamb . . . , a work that she later distilled into an evening-length solo piece, Lamb at the Altar. In her book, in part a reflection on her life as a dancer and choreographer, Hay tells how this dance came to be. She includes a movement libretto (a prose dance score) and numerous photographs by Phyllis Liedeker documenting the dance’s four-month emergence.
In an original style that has marked her teaching and writing, Hay describes her thoughts as the dance progresses, commenting on the process and on the work itself, and ultimately creating a remarkable document on the movements—precise and mysterious, mental and physical—that go into the making of a dance. Having replaced traditional movement technique with a form she calls a performance meditation practice, Hay describes how dance is enlivened, as is each living moment, by the perception of dying and then involves a freeing of this perception from emotional, psychological, clinical, and cultural attitudes into movement. Lamb at the Altar tells the story of this process as specifically practiced in the creation of a single piece.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"The intention of my work is to dislodge assumptions about the fixity of the three-dimensional body."—Deborah Hay

Her movements are uncharacteristic, her words subversive, her dances unlike anything done before—and this is the story of how it all works. A founding member of the famed Judson Dance Theater and a past performer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Deborah Hay is well known for choreographing works using large groups of trained and untrained dancers whose surprising combinations test the limits of the art. Lamb at the Altar is Hay’s account of a four-month seminar on movement and performance held in Austin, Texas, in 1991. There, forty-four trained and untrained dancers became the human laboratory for Hay’s creation of the dance Lamb, lamb, lamb . . . , a work that she later distilled into an evening-length solo piece, Lamb at the Altar. In her book, in part a reflection on her life as a dancer and choreographer, Hay tells how this dance came to be. She includes a movement libretto (a prose dance score) and numerous photographs by Phyllis Liedeker documenting the dance’s four-month emergence.
In an original style that has marked her teaching and writing, Hay describes her thoughts as the dance progresses, commenting on the process and on the work itself, and ultimately creating a remarkable document on the movements—precise and mysterious, mental and physical—that go into the making of a dance. Having replaced traditional movement technique with a form she calls a performance meditation practice, Hay describes how dance is enlivened, as is each living moment, by the perception of dying and then involves a freeing of this perception from emotional, psychological, clinical, and cultural attitudes into movement. Lamb at the Altar tells the story of this process as specifically practiced in the creation of a single piece.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book The Skin of the Film by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Political Reasoning and Cognition by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Framed by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Arrested Histories by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Not Hollywood by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book The Fruit Machine by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Monrovia Modern by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Collecting, Ordering, Governing by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Unearthing Gender by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book In Senghor's Shadow by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book The Invention of the Brazilian Northeast by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book The New History in an Old Museum by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Long Live Atahualpa by Deborah Hay
Cover of the book Sites of Slavery by Deborah Hay
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy