The Beautiful Worlds Inside Choreographers’ Heads
A new Research Institute acquisition makes art of dance
From The Choreographers’ Scores 2020, 2021, Alice Sheppard. Published by the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, Los Angeles; Printed by the Lapis Press, Culver City, CA, 2021. Edition 1/40
Body Content
For dancers, the pandemic effectively shut down their normal choreographic processes: ideas flowing in and out of their minds and bodies, circulating among them in the studio, creating dance in collaboration.
Stalled while sheltering for more than a year, choreographers were forced to live—and dance—in their heads. Responding creatively to this dire situation, Kristy Edmunds (formerly executive and artistic director of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, now director of MassMoCA) commissioned 26 contemporary dancers to produce handmade scores—sketches, notations, instructions, or simply reflections—for The Choreographers’ Scores 2020, a portfolio of fine art prints produced by the Lapis Press in Culver City. Stunning works on paper reveal the choreographers’ imaginations as they awaited their return to studios and the stage. Pen, pencil, and paper document the elements of dance composition, distilling choreographic practice into two dimensions.
From The Choreographers’ Scores 2020 2021, Ralph Lemon. Published by the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, Los Angeles; Printed by the Lapis Press, Culver City, CA, 2021. Edition 1/40
Resolutely on the sunny side with its bright orange interior, the portfolio brings the dance community together. The prints’ intense colors and strong words take them from cheerful to deeply intense. Ralph Lemon’s color blocks prophesy the FUTURE. Alice Sheppard writes, “A score is like a cutting. A bleeding…a healing…scar tissue.” Rosie Herrera’s First Communion veil, paired with pages from her journal, recalls her relationships with family, friends, or fellow dancers. Lucinda Childs’s energized lines arc above their paper stage.
The revelation? Dancers are also accomplished artists and writers.
From The Choreographers’ Scores 2020, 2021, Lucinda Childs. Published by the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, Los Angeles; Printed by the Lapis Press, Culver City, CA, 2021. Edition 1/40
From The Choreographers’ Scores 2020, 2021, Rosie Herrera. Published by the UCLA Center for the Art of Performance, Los Angeles; Printed by the Lapis Press, Culver City, CA, 2021. Edition 1/40
