Yvonne Rainer facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Yvonne Rainer, born on November 24, 1934, is an American artist. She is known for her work as a dancer, choreographer (someone who creates dances), and filmmaker. Her art is often seen as experimental and challenging. Some people describe her work as minimalist, meaning it uses very simple elements. Yvonne Rainer lives and works in New York City.

Quick facts for kids Yvonne Rainer
Rainer in 2014
Born	(1934-11-24) November 24, 1934 (age 90) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Education	One year at San Francisco Junior College Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
Known for	Performance art, Choreography, Dancing, Film
Awards	MacArthur Fellows Program

Yvonne Rainer: A Pioneer in Dance and Film
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Yvonne Rainer: A Pioneer in Dance and Film

Early Life and Training

Yvonne Rainer was born in San Francisco, California, on November 24, 1934. Her parents, Joseph and Jeanette, were interested in new ideas. Her mother was a stenographer, and her father was a stonemason and house painter. He came to the United States from Italy when he was 21.

Yvonne grew up in the Sunset District of San Francisco with her older brother. She remembers it as a neighborhood of white working-class families. From age twelve, she was around poets, painters, writers, and Italian thinkers.

Her father often took her to foreign films. Her mother took her to the ballet and opera. Yvonne went to Lowell High School. After graduating, she attended San Francisco Junior College for a year.

In her late teens, Yvonne worked as a clerk-typist. She spent time at a jazz club in San Francisco. There, she met a painter named Al Held. He introduced her to artists from New York. In August 1956, when she was 21, she moved to New York with Held.

Around 1957, a friend named Doris Casella introduced Yvonne to modern dance classes. Yvonne later studied at the Martha Graham School in 1959. She also took ballet classes and studied with Merce Cunningham for eight years.

In 1959-1960, Yvonne met Simone Forti and Nancy Meehan. They had worked with other dancers in San Francisco. In mid-1960, the three rented a studio in New York. They worked on movement improvisations. In August 1960, Yvonne traveled to California. She took a summer workshop that was very important for her early solo dances. Later in 1960, Yvonne and Simone attended a choreography workshop. It was led by musician Robert Dunn. Here, Yvonne created and performed her first dances.

Her Unique Dance Style

In 1962, Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, and Ruth Emerson started performing at the Judson Memorial Church. This church was already known for theater and art. It became a central place for new dance performances.

Rainer is known for her approach to dance. She sees the body as a source of many different movements. She doesn't use dance to tell a story or create drama. She used elements like repetition and tasks in her dances. These ideas later became common in modern dance. In 1965, she wrote her famous No Manifesto. This was a statement about what she believed dance should *not* be.

Yvonne used repetition and sound in her first choreographed piece. It was called Three Satie Spoons (1961). She performed it alone to music by Eric Satie. Later, her work included more spoken words and stories. Ordinary Dance (1962) combined movement and talking. She repeated simple movements while telling a story about the streets where she had lived.

One special thing about Rainer's early dances was using untrained performers. We Shall Run (1963) had twelve performers. Some were dancers, some were not. They wore regular clothes and ran around the stage for twelve minutes. Her first full-length dance, Terrain, was performed in 1963.

Trio A: A Famous Work

One of Rainer's most famous pieces is Trio A (1966). It was the first part of a longer work called The Mind Is a Muscle. In Trio A, she made movements with an even amount of energy. This was different from traditional dance. In traditional dance, movements often have a strong start and a soft end. Trio A tried to make all parts of a movement feel the same.

Another feature of this five-minute dance is that the performer never looks at the audience. If the movement makes the dancer face the audience, their eyes are closed. Also, Rainer decided not to repeat any movements in this piece. Trio A is often called a "task-oriented" performance. This is because of its even energy and neutral way of moving. It also doesn't involve the audience. The first time it was performed, it was called The Mind is a Muscle, Part 1. Rainer, Steve Paxton, and David Gordon performed it at the same time, but not in perfect sync. Trio A has been taught and performed by many other dancers.

Yvonne Rainer has created over 40 dance works.

Selected Choreography

Three Seascapes (1961): A solo dance in three parts. Each part explored how movement and sound relate.
Terrain (1962): Rainer's first full-length work. It included "Talking Solos" where stories were read during unrelated movements.
Continuous Project-Altered Daily (1970): Performed at the Whitney Museum. It later became the improvisational dance group Grand Union.
War (1970): An anti-war dance performed by thirty people. It protested the Vietnam War.
Street Action (1970): A protest against the invasion of Cambodia. People wore black armbands and swayed as they moved through the streets.
This is the story of a woman who ... (1973): A dance drama using projected text, a vacuum cleaner, and objects like a mattress and a suitcase.

Cinematic Work

Yvonne Rainer sometimes included film clips in her dances. In 1972, she started directing full-length films. Her films often explored how women were shown in movies. This connected with feminist film ideas at the time. Her early films don't follow typical story rules. Instead, they mix personal stories and fiction. They use sound and text on screen to talk about social and political issues.

Rainer directed several experimental films about dance and performance. These include Lives of Performers (1972), Film About a Woman Who (1974), and Kristina Talking Pictures (1976). Her later films include Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980), The Man Who Envied Women (1985), Privilege (1990), and ... and murder (1996). ... and murder had a more traditional story. It was a love story that also dealt with Rainer's experience with breast cancer. In 2017, Lives of Performers was chosen for the National Film Registry. This means it is considered important for culture, history, or art.

Filmography

Hand Movie (1966)
Volleyball (1967)
Trio Film (1968)
Rhode Island Red (1968)
Line (1969)
Five Easy Pieces (1966–69)
Lives of Performers (1972)
Film About A Woman Who... (1974)
Kristina Talking Pictures (1976)
Journeys From Berlin/1971 (1980)
The Man Who Envied Women (1985)
Privilege (1990)
... And Murder (1996)
After Many A Summer Dies The Swan: Hybrid (2002)

Return to Dance

In 2000, Rainer returned to creating dances. She choreographed After Many a Summer Dies the Swan. This was for Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. In 2006, Rainer created AG Indexical, with a Little Help from H.M.. This was a new version of George Balanchine's Agon. Rainer continued to create works based on classical pieces. This included RoS Indexical (2007). It was inspired by Vaslav Nijinsky's The Rite of Spring.

Later works include Spiraling Down (2010) and Assisted Living: Good Sports 2 (2010). She also created Assisted Living: Do You Have Any Money? (2013). In these pieces, Rainer explored the idea of tableau vivants. These are scenes where people pose like characters in a painting. She combined this with political and economic ideas.

An exhibition in London showed live performances of her 1960s dances. It also featured photos and notes from her career.

In 2015, she choreographed The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there's nothing left to move?. This performance mixed choreographed movements with readings of political and historical texts. Dancers and Rainer herself read these texts. It was shown at The Museum of Modern Art and toured in Europe. A later version, The Concept of Dust: Continuous Project-Altered Annually, was performed in 2016 and 2017.

In 2019, Rainer recreated her 1965 work Parts of Some Sextets. This new version, Parts of Some Sextets, 1965/2019, was presented as part of Performa 19.

In 2024, Yvonne Rainer's famous dance Trio A was performed many times daily. This happened at the Neue Nationalgalerie during Berlin Art Week. Trio A, created in 1966, is seen as one of the most important dances of the 20th century. It features a continuous sequence of movements that do not repeat.

Feminism and Art

Reading feminist writings helped Yvonne Rainer understand her own experiences as a woman. She began to see herself as an active part of culture and society. She realized that her earlier dances, by challenging traditional ideas, were already feminist in nature.

Rainer participated in demonstrations in New York and Washington D.C. She protested challenges to women's rights. She has been referenced as an example of an artist, feminist, and lesbian in books about feminist art theory.

Recognition and Awards

In 1990, Yvonne Rainer received a MacArthur Fellows Program award. This is sometimes called a "Genius Grant." It recognized her important contributions to dance. In 2015, she received the Merce Cunningham Award. In 2017, she received a USA Grant. She has also received two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1969 and 1988).