“Simone Forti has compiled a body of work – from performance, drawing, film, video, photography, installation, and texts—that is astonishing in its range and singular in its vision. An innovator in multiple mediums and expert dance improviser, Forti’s art has often combined elements of movement, sound, and objects into new and surprising hybrid articulations - work that has been as seminally influential in the development of post-modern dance as it has been revelatory to minimalism.
Self-defining as artist or movement artist rather than being bound to the conventions and orthodoxies of ‘choreographer’, Forti has moved freely and seamlessly between creative worlds, wildly mixing disciplines and in doing so, championed the primacy of body, or rather ‘thinking with the body’ as a force for experimentation, play and (re)invention.
Forti’s work has been collected in major museums and collections globally; her nature-based improvisatory dance techniques, first transmitted by Anna Halprin, are taught to eager students desperate to connect to their own essential dance power, a power that recognizably sits at the heart of Forti’s daring dancing; and the conceptual strength of Forti’s 60-year trajectory, its rigour of idea and simplicity of execution, its sly wit, its unending curiosity - all cementing Forti’s legacy as a true arts genius, constantly surprising the imagination and invigorating us - the public, to see again to reach back into the (Forti) past to move forward into the (Forti) future. A legacy unrivalled and how grateful are we”.
Self-defining as artist or movement artist rather than being bound to the conventions and orthodoxies of ‘choreographer’, Forti has moved freely and seamlessly between creative worlds, wildly mixing disciplines and in doing so, championed the primacy of body, or rather ‘thinking with the body’ as a force for experimentation, play and (re)invention.
Forti’s work has been collected in major museums and collections globally; her nature-based improvisatory dance techniques, first transmitted by Anna Halprin, are taught to eager students desperate to connect to their own essential dance power, a power that recognizably sits at the heart of Forti’s daring dancing; and the conceptual strength of Forti’s 60-year trajectory, its rigour of idea and simplicity of execution, its sly wit, its unending curiosity - all cementing Forti’s legacy as a true arts genius, constantly surprising the imagination and invigorating us - the public, to see again to reach back into the (Forti) past to move forward into the (Forti) future. A legacy unrivalled and how grateful are we”.
Simone Forti participated in the Biennale Arte 1980 (39th International Art Exhibition) in the section dedicated to Art in the 1970s – film and video productions of artists working in performance art curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Michael Compton, Martin Kunz, Harald Szeemann; while the Biennale Danza 2018 featured An Evening of Dance Constructions, the film that presented the radically new dance pieces that Forti had performed in Yoko Ono’s loft/studio in 1961, a series later reconstructed at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2004.
Tao Ye (left) and Duan Ni, the leaders of the TAO Dance Theater company. Photography courtesy of the Venice Biennale.
TAO Dance Theater
Travelling across 40 countries on 5 continents, the members of the TAO Dance Theater led by Tao Ye and Duan Ni have presented their works in institutions and festivals such as the Lincoln Center Art Festival in New York, the Edinburgh International Art Festival, the Sydney Opera House, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the American Dance Festival, fascinating dance audiences and 500 million TikTokers with their dance degree-zero.
“Forsaking narrative, message and elaborate stage design in their work – states Wayne McGregor in his motivation –Tao Ye and Duan Ni have built a unique and evolutionary dance genre that has enraptured with a mesmeric, minimalist force. Their company TAO Dance Theater, founded in 2008 has committed to a stripped-back, “pure dance” aesthetic, eliminating any categorisation of movement, and by extension, of themselves. The body is presented as an element to be perceived for its optical allure – devoid of representation, narrative, or context, simply existing as an object alone. This is only ever amplified by the use of light and sound design, allowing the viewers to be confronted and often challenged by the rigorous body focussed techniques, vocabulary and forms.
It is this confidence in the power of movement alone (and developed through their innovative Circular Movement System), with all its latent potential and expressivity, its nuance, elegance, idiosyncrasy, limitation and restriction that demands us to watch and watch again – to learn the hidden syntax and to really ‘see’ as if experiencing bodies and indeed dancing for the very first time - in all its spectacular wonder, elegance and direct visceral, kinaesthetic communication.
TAO Dance Theater is an exceptional company with a vision, mission, and purpose. Like the great dance makers of the past, they understand the very nature of the body as a ‘microcosm of the universe’ and have found their special territory to explore and expand. Their deep dive here, in this unfamiliar territory, is ingenious, significant, and edifying as we are simultaneously embraced and provoked by their brilliance”.
It is this confidence in the power of movement alone (and developed through their innovative Circular Movement System), with all its latent potential and expressivity, its nuance, elegance, idiosyncrasy, limitation and restriction that demands us to watch and watch again – to learn the hidden syntax and to really ‘see’ as if experiencing bodies and indeed dancing for the very first time - in all its spectacular wonder, elegance and direct visceral, kinaesthetic communication.
TAO Dance Theater is an exceptional company with a vision, mission, and purpose. Like the great dance makers of the past, they understand the very nature of the body as a ‘microcosm of the universe’ and have found their special territory to explore and expand. Their deep dive here, in this unfamiliar territory, is ingenious, significant, and edifying as we are simultaneously embraced and provoked by their brilliance”.
TAO Dance Theater will be at the Biennale Danza 2023 on July 28th and 29thwith three new works in their European premiere performance at the Teatro Malibran, three choreographic works that continue the sequence of the Numerical Series that launched them on the international scene, titled 11, 13, 14.
