RE-Perspective Deborah Hay

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What Pina Bausch was to the German dance scene, Deborah Hay is for the American one, both being influential figures in postmodern dance. As a founding member of the New York-based Judson Dance Theater, Hay utilized amateur dancers to develop a formal vocabulary of everyday movements, creating new patterns of perception for both audiences and performers. Her choreographic practices and the ongoing publications about her methods have become foundational to contemporary dance. Choreographer and dance historian Susan Leigh Foster has curated previously unpublished materials from the Deborah Hay Archive, including dance instructions, drawings, photographs, and correspondence, enriched by Hay’s commentary and scientific classifications. This book provides a multifaceted overview of Hay's dance work from the 1960s to the present. Hay, born in 1941, collaborated with Merce Cunningham and toured globally with the Cunningham Dance Company in 1964. She has authored four books detailing her experimental methods in dance and choreography. In recognition of her contributions, she was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2015.