Lillian Elaine Summers (February 20, 1925 – December 27, 2014) was an American choreographer,

experimental filmmaker Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

, and intermedia pioneer. She was a founding member of the original workshop-group that would form the

Judson Dance Theater Judson Dance Theater was a collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, Manhattan New York City between 1962 and 1964. The artists involved were avant garde experimentalists ...

and she significantly contributed to the interaction of film and dance, as well as the expansion of dance into other related disciplines, such as

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...

, film, and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

. She fostered the expansion of performing dance in new, often outdoor locations. Her movement approach Kinetic Awareness offers a comprehensive perspective on human movement and dance. She died at Bellevue Hospital, New York, on the morning of December 27, 2014, after a fall at her home.

Early life

Elaine Summers was born in Perth, Western Australia and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts with her mother and her younger brother John. Although she took self-paid dance classes through adolescence, she first studied Art Education and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1947.

Moving to New York / Judson Dance Theater

In 1951 Elaine Summers came to New York and attended classes at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

of Dance, together with Paul Taylor and Carolyn Brown. She also studied with

Louis Horst Louis Horst (born January 12, 1884, Kansas City, Missouri – died January 23, 1964, New York City) was a composer, and pianist. He helped to define the principles of modern dance choreographic technique, most notably the matching of choreography t ...

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

, Daniel Nagrin, Don Redlich,

Mary Anthony Mary Anthony (11 November 1916, in Newport, Kentucky – 31 May 2014, in Manhattan) was an American choreographer, modern dancer, and dance teacher. Both her work as a dancer and choreographer were highly influenced by Martha Graham and Hanya Holm ...

Charlotte Selver Charlotte Selver (April 4, 1901 in Ruhrort (Duisburg), Germany – August 22, 2003 in Muir Beach, California; née ''Wittgenstein'') was a German music educator. The central point of Charlotte Selver's work was "experience through the senses". ...

and Carola Speads, (both students of German body-reeducation pioneer

Elsa Gindler Elsa Gindler (19 June 1885 – 8 January 1961) was a somatic bodywork pioneer in Germany. Born in Berlin, teacher of gymnastik, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer (who, in turn, had been a student of Genevieve Stebbins). From her personal experience of ...

Jean Erdman Jean Erdman (February 20, 1916 – May 4, 2020) was an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director. Biography Early years and background Erdman was born in Honolulu. Erdman's father, John Piney ...

, Janet Collins, and at the

Martha Graham School Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is located in New York City and is the headquarters to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Martha Graham Dance Company, which is the oldest continually performing dance company in the ...

. In 1962 Summers joined the composition class taught by

Robert Ellis Dunn Robert Ellis Dunn (1928 – July 5, 1996) was an American musician and choreographer who led classes in dance composition, contributing to the birth of the postmodern dance period in the early 1960s in New York City. Early years Dunn was born in ...

at the Merce Cunningham Studio in its second term, and subsequently became part of the workshop-group that would later be referred to as the

, together with Edward Bhartonne,

Trisha Brown Trisha Brown (November 25, 1936 – March 18, 2017) was an American choreographer and dancer, and one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater and the postmodern dance movement. Brown’s dance/movement method, with which she and her dancer ...

Lucinda Childs Lucinda Childs (born June 26, 1940) is an American postmodern dancer/ choreographer and actress. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest mov ...

, Ruth Emerson,

Fred Herko Frederick Charles "Freddie" Herko (February 23, 1936 – October 27, 1964) was an American artist, musician, actor, dancer, choreographer and teacher. Early life Born in New York City, Herko's father was a diner manager and his mother was a ...

, Sally Gross,

Deborah Hay Deborah Hay (born 1941 in Brooklyn, New York) is a choreographer, dancer, dance theorist, and author working in the field of experimental postmodern dance. She is one of the original founders of the Judson Dance Theater. Hay's signature slow and ...

, David Gordon, John Herbert McDowell, Gretchen MacLane, Robert Morris,

Aileen Passloff Aileen Passloff (October 21, 1931November 3, 2020) was an American dancer and teacher who lived and worked in New York City. From 1949 to 1953, she studied at Bennington College. She attended the School of American Ballet, where she met James Wari ...

, Steve Paxton, Rudy Perez,

Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.

, Robert Rauschenberg, and

Valda Setterfield __NOTOC__ Valda Setterfield (born September 17, 1934) is an American postmodern dancer and actress born in England. She is noted for her work as a soloist with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and for her performances in works by her husband, ...

. At Judson, Summers shared in the ongoing experiments with chance methods and pedestrian, everyday movements as part of the interest in expanding the then accepted methods of creating and performing dances. However, she also embraced the more theatrical part of the collective (as did Aileen Passloff, John Herbert McDowell and others). Summers expanded dance into other disciplines,

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

, and body work. In the later phase of the Judson Dance Theater she created dances that would be made to work with the entire environment of the performance space, notably ''Country Houses'' (1963), which included speaking non-sequitor one-liners, and her solo-concert ''Fantastic Gardens'' (1964), which included the first large-scale use of intermedia, immersing the entire performance area in film-projections, multiplied by the audience with hand-held mirrors.Mekas, Jonas (February 27, 1964), "Movie Journal", ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'', p. 12.

References

Sources

* Banes, Sally, ''Democracy's body''. Judson Dance Theater 1962–64. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1983 * Green, Jill, ''The Use of Balls in Kinetic Awareness'' 1982, JOPERD, Vol. 63 No. 8 * Saltonstall, Ellen ''Kinetic Awareness: Discovering Your Bodymind'' 1988, Kinetic Awareness Center / The Publishing Center for Cultural Resources, New York City (out of print) * Körtvélyessy, Thomas, ''committed to body choice and intermedia: Elaine Summers''. paper dance history, Rotterdamse Dansacademie, 1994 * Körtvélyessy, Thomas, ''completely coming into moving: Kinetic Awareness for the contemporary dance teacher''. paper educational sciences, Rotterdamse Dansacademie, 1996 (written in Dutch) * Wooster, Anne-Sargent, ''Elaine Summers: moving to dance''. The Drama Review T86, New York NY, December 1980, pp. 59–70

External links

Elaine Summers papers, 1929-2015
Jerome Robbins Dance Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, Elaine 1925 births 2014 deaths American choreographers American women experimental filmmakers People from Perth, Western Australia