Susan Rethorst: Retro(into)spective
PLATFORM 2011
Danspace Project
May 9 — June 18, 2011
curated by Melinda Ring
This platform is patterned after the mid-career retrospective so common in the visual arts, but rare in our world of experimental dance. It's not a comprehensive survey, but an oblique look at Susan Rethorst's work—past, present and future. An indirect approach makes sense as a way to describe and understand this delicate work, which for me is about the "in-between," negative and positive space, dislocation and transposition, restraint, and a mood of something left unsaid.
For four weeks, we took over Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, turning it into a laboratory and a living room. Rethorst was in-residence, having moved her furniture into the church to continue work on 208 East Broadway, a series of dances made in, and of, her living room. Subsequently displaced in its entirety to the performance site. The goal of her residency was to form the same kind of intimacy with the sanctuary that she has with her apartment, both for the development of the two new works she presented at the end of the platform, and for the platform's auxiliary events.
Retro(intro)spective catalogs available for purchase — Includes photos, a beautiful drawing by Dawn Clements, essays and interviews with Susan Rethorst, Melinda Ring and Danspace Project Executive Director Judy Hussie-Taylor.