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The Grand Union: The Presentation of Everyday Life as Dance HE GRAND UNION was a collective of choreographer/performers who during the years 1970 to 1976 made group improvisations embracing dance, theater, and theatrics in an ongoing investigation into the nature of dance and performance. The Grand Union's identity as a group had several sources: some of the nine who were its members at different points had known each other for as long as ten years when the group formed. They had seen and performed in each other's work since the Judson Church days. Most had studied with Merce Cunningham, and three had danced in his company. One rich and important source of the group's genesis was Yvonne Rainer's work Continuous Project — Altered Daily (abbreviated CP— AD). To understand the course of the Grand Union's work, it is useful to look first at the changing nature of CP — AD. Rainer began work on the piece in 1969, and in March 1970 presented a definitive version at the Whitney Museum. The performers were Becky Arnold, Douglas Dunn, David Gordon, BarbaraLloyd (Dilley), Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and various readers. CP — AD took its name from a sculptural work by Robert Morris in which the daily alteration of the work — an arrangement of earth and metal in a garage — was put on view (after being altered) for spectators. In CP — AD, Rainer's concern was to make an ongoing performance that would change during and between performances, using various aspects of the working process of dance-making: learning, rehearsing, marking (a dancer's term for executing a movement at a low energy level); working out and running through material; and dancing the material in a finished performance style. Given these categories, the performance itself could include behavior that was, according to Rainer, "actual" (spontaneous) or "choreographed" The Grand Union, improvisatoryperformance (to benefit the Committeeto Defend the Black Panthers), 1971. Left to right: Becky Arnold, Nancy (Green) Lewis, Barbara (Lloyd) Dilley, Douglas Dunn, Yvonne Rainer (standing); Steve Paxton, David Gordon (on floor). Photograph© Peter Moore, 1971 T (learned, edited, stylized). Rainer wanted, as well, to show the dichotomy between "professional" dancing behavior, and "amateur" (ordinary) gesture and deportment.1 Another concern was to include within the performance the different relationships between the performer and the material, which Rainer systematized according to "levels of performance reality." On a primary level, the performer does original material in a personal style; on a secondary level, the performer works in a recognizable style, or performs someone else's material in the original style; on a tertiary level, the content and style of the material are not coordinated — i.e., the performance is a transformation, a deliberately "bad secondary performance."2 The piece was an assemblage of "chunks" and "insertables" of movement material — solos, duets, group sequences — that could be put in any order determined by the performers. Some of the material was already known and polished, some actually rehearsed, some marked, some learned during the performance. The dancers could initiate a section by calling out its name, or by bringing out the requisite prop, or by putting on the appropriate music. Discussion between the performers about the work as it progressed — comments and tactical analyses — created a casual, rehearsal-like atmosphere. The movement sequences often focused on the manipulation of a prop or a "body adjunct," including: five pillows, a large pair of wings, a stuffed round object with a leg and foot attached to it, two pieces of SYz x 11-inch paper, one 2 x 6-foot strip of foam rubber, an object that when strapped on the back transformed the dancer into a hunchback. Many of the routines also involved manipulating, hoisting, and carrying other performers. Some of the bits used music: "Chair-Pillow," for example, was performed to the tune of Ike and Tina Turner's "Mountain High, River Deep"; a section called "Here Comes the Sun" was accompanied by the Beatles' song of the same name. At other times, the movement activity was accompanied by reminiscences of film stars and directors (mostly taken from Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By), recited by several people at a microphone — an element that added more information about the nature of performance to the performance. Films, including one of the Connecticut College rehearsal of CP— AD, the previous summer, were shown in other rooms in the museum. When one looks at the silent film Connecticut Rehearsal by Michael Fajans, one...

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