The final iteration of Rainer's dance rant A Truncated History of the
Universe for Dummies, accompanied by texts offering a real-time account
of Rainer's creative process.
Choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer has long investigated the ways
in which movement can be a political act in and of itself--on the stage,
on the screen, or at the lectern. In Revisions, Rainer pushes her
interest in embodied activism to a new arena: what she calls the "dance
rant." This volume includes the final iteration of Rainer's latest dance
rant, entitled A Truncated History of the Universe for Dummies. This
performance piece evolved in live presentations in Dublin, Stockholm,
and New York before being expanded and adapted in written form here. In
this now-completed work, Rainer mobilizes her rage and bafflement at
contemporary political events through the guise of Apollo, Leader of the
Muses.
Revisions also includes a compilation of emails and diary entries that
provide a real-time account of Rainer's process of creating and
workshopping a dance. "Pedagogical Vaudeville 3" reveals Rainer's
consistent interest in reworking and reconsidering material across
multiple mediums, formats, and contexts, and offers an unique glimpse at
the working methods of one of this century's preeminent dance artists.
Bookended with an introduction by artist and scholar Gregg Bordowitz and
an analysis of Rainer's AG Indexical with a Little Help from H. M. by
dance historian Anna Staniczenko, these texts serve not only as a
revision of the conventional understanding of five decades of Rainer's
production, but also as a timely manual for performance as an act of
resistance.
