Set and Reset: Trisha Brown’s Postmodern Masterpiece

Susan Rosenberg, consulting historical scholar with Trisha Brown Dance Company, uses archival footage of Set and Reset to discuss Brown’s processes, why the dance has endured as a seminal work of postmodern art and dance, and why it continues to be breathtaking viewing for each new generation of audiences. “Set and Reset is unmistakably Miss Brown at her most tantalizing. Her virtuosic dancers exhibit a quality of movement that is distinctly hers- dartingly quick but so fluid that the body seems a conduit for flowing energy.”—Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset, a collaboration with Robert Rauschenberg and Laurie Anderson had its US premiere as part of BAM’s inaugural Next Wave Festival in 1983. The piece marked a transitional moment in Brown’s career - creating more and large scale works for the proscenium stage. For the 1996 Next Wave Festival, BAM presented Set and Reset within the program Trisha Brown at 25: Postmodern and Beyond, in celebration of the company’s 25th anniversary. The company restaged the work on the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House stage in 2013 marking the 30th anniversary of the piece. Set and Reset is now part of the core curriculum in baccalaureate dance study in France and is used as a teaching tool in master classes around the world on Brown’s movement style and choreographic methods. Susan Rosenberg directs the masters degree program in museum administration at St. John's University, New York, where she is also associate professor of art history. A former curator of modern and contemporary art, her forthcoming book, Trisha Brown: Choreography as Visual Art (1962-1987) will be appear in fall 2016, published by Wesleyan University Press. Trisha Brown Dance Company returns to BAM to perform Set and Reset on Jan 28—30. The program also includes PRESENT TENSE (2003) and Newark (Niweweorce) (1987). More info: http://bit.ly/1lAhly5