The Minimal Presence of Simone Forti Author(s): Virginia B. Spivey Reviewed work(s): Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 30, No. 1 (SPRING/SUMMER 2009), pp. 11-18 Published by: Old City Publishing, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40605219 . Accessed: 21/01/2013 06:01 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Old City Publishing, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Woman's Art Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:01:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The MinimalPresence of SimoneForti By VirginiaB. Spivey May1961, a youngchoreographer named Simone Forti Theseissues converge in a studyof Simone Forti. Scholarly (b. 1935)presented "Five Dance Constructions and Some bias in arthistory has ignoredmany women like Forti.5 Her OtherThings," a concertof experimental dance, at Yoko situationwas compoundedby similarattitudes in the Ono'sChambers Street loft.1 A fewyears later, in November academythat viewed dance as an uncritical(often feminized) 1964,Forti' s ex-husband, Robert Morris, exhibited a group of artform, more rooted in bodilyexpression than intellectual sevensculptures at New York'sGreen Gallery. Commonly activity.6Another factor is that,like many women of the time, calledthe "Plywood Show," this exhibition marked a shiftin Fortichose not to promoteher own career, which she saw as criticalresponse to Morris and signaledan increasinginterest secondaryto herhusband's professional ambitions. Morris's amongart audiences in thereduced aesthetic that would interestin paintingfirst led thenewlywed couple to San becomeknown as Minimalism.Although some scholars have Franciscoin 1956and laterto New York.After divorcing notedMorris's plywood constructions resembled the props Morrisin 1960,Forti married Happenings artist Robert Fortiused in her dances, her Chambers Street performance is Whitman,who asked that she give up herown work and assist relativelyunknown to art historians.2The dancer and himwhile they tried to start a family.7 filmmakerYvonne Rainer later said: Whenher second marriage ended in 1966 and Forti returned toher theradical in dance tobe aheadof its time.... As career, developments predictedby [Forti'sconcert] proved way her had been established.This was then itwas as a vacuumsealed that choreography already things stood, though due tothe ofthe event. waswritten about it and dancers went on largely groundbreakingperformances Judson Nothing Dance a thatis discussedin art and and wenton Theater, group frequently dancing painters ex-painters making historicaltexts because of its focus.8 and theater It wouldbe interdisciplinary Although painterlyhappenings pieces. Yvonne Trisha andother memberscite anothertwo and half beforethe idea of a Rainer, Brown, Judson years Fortias a the factthat she never constructionto movementor situationwould significantinfluence, generate in the led toher omission. takehold.3 participated group'sperformances Today,Forti is well-knownamong dance scholars; yet, her name Forti'sinnovative choreography has longdeserved closer remainsunfamiliar tomost art historians.9 A closer look at her scrutiny,especially for its conceptual affinity toMinimalism of worknot only demonstrates Forti's importance to arthistory, the1960s. butalso underscoresthe vital exchange between avant-garde Minimalismin arthas typicallybeen discussed as a danceand visual art in the 1960s. movementoriginating in New York,when spare abstract Fortibegan her study of dance soon after she and Morris formsbegan to emergefrom the studios of Morris, Donald arrivedin San Francisco.By the timeof herfirst public Judd,Dan Flavin,Frank Stella, Carl Andre, and Sol LeWitt. performanceinDecember 1960, at New York's Reuben Gallery, Womenare conspicuously absent in thisnarrative, although shehad developeda distinctivechoreographic approach that femaleartists such as JoBaer, Anne Truitt, and Judy Gerowitz synthesizeda numberof influences.One of the most (betterknown as JudyChicago) were producing similar work importantwas AnnaHalprin, co-founder of San Francisco's atthe same time. In an effort to extendthe movement's narrow Halprin-LathropInstitute and a majorproponent of modern construction,scholars have recently acknowledged the range dance on theWest Coast. Around1956, Halprin became ofminimalist aesthetic practices that developed in theearly concernedabout the direction of contemporary dance, and she 1960s.4This new wave of researchis not art historical startedconducting experimental workshops at herhome in revisionism,but an attemptto restore Minimalism to its place MarinCounty.10 The goal was to exploreher preconceptions withinthe diverse artistic landscape of the period. Such an aboutwhat constituted dance, movement, and composition.11 endeavordemands thatart historyexpand to include Informedby Halprin' s knowledge of anatomy, Forti and other previouslyoverlooked individuals, and it forcesus to re- studentsanalyzed movement to determinewhether their examineMinimalism by recognizing how different disciplines actionswere executed in themost anatomically efficient way, wereintegral to its development. orwhether they were learned motions performed according to SPRING / SUMMER 2009 A This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:01:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Fig. 2. Simone Forti,Slant Board (1981), performanceby Simone Forti, ElinoreRadeff, and unidentifeddancer, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Photo: courtesySimone Forti. Forti's frustrationwith modem dance changed when she enteredRobert Dunn's dance workshop at theCunningham Schoolin thefall of 1960. Dunn had workedextensively with Cunninghamas a musicianand composerand had attended JohnCage's class,"Composition of Experimental Music," at the New School forSocial Researchfrom 1958-1960. 15 Influencedby the innovative atmosphere of Cage's seminar, Dunn'sinstruction drew from an eclecticrange of material, Fig. 1. Simone Forti,Plan for"Five Dance Constructionsand Some Other includingZen Buddhism,Taoism, and existentialism.16He Things" (1961), performanceat 112 Chambers Street,New YorkCity. introducedhis students to avant-garde music and explained to themJohn Cage's chance-based methods of composition. Forti habit.Improvisation proved Halprin's greatest tool during was impressedwith Cage's approachbecause it allowedfor theseyears, not as a meansof self-expression, butas a wayto indeterminacywhile retaininga sense of organized generateunpredictable actions.12 composition.She realized she could adapt his ideas to Aftermoving to New York, Forti took classes at the modern structureher own dances. danceschools of Martha Graham and Mercé Cunningham. In Anothersource of influence was thegroup of New York contrastto Halprin'sconcern with individual skills and Happeningsartists that included Robert Whitman, Allan limitations,Graham and Cunninghambased theirideas on Kaprow,and Jim Dine.17 Forti found the kind of "wild action" rigorousphysical demands of the balletically trained body. Forti thatcharacterized Whitman's theater pieces particularly foundboth choreographers' techniques extremely complicated intriguing.18He oftenimmersed spectators directly in his andfelt she could not keep up withwhat they asked her to do. performances,providing them an immediateexperience that Shedescribed her disappointment with Cunningham in her rangedfrom vaguely threatening to spectacular.Whitman's diary,"Mercé Cunningham was a masterof adult, isolated influenceis most apparent in Rollers, a dance Forti presented in articulation[ofdifferent parts of the body]. And that the thing I herperformance atthe Reuben Gallery in December 1960. Forti hadto offer was stillvery close to the holistic and generalized and PattyOldenburg each sat in a smallwooden box on responseof children."13 Forti, who also taught nursery school in wheelswith strings attached. Audience members were asked NewYork, felt more inspired watching her students at play. The to pull theperformers around the stage area whileboth children'sability to think clearly, to solveproblems directly, and womenwould sing a singlenote, holding it for the duration. tofind joy in simplerepeated actions resonated with her own As theboxes careened and veered dangerously, however, what straightforwardapproach to inquiry.14 began as a musical tone transformedinto a panicked, fi± WOMAN'SART JOURNAL This content downloaded on Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:01:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions shriekingscream, rising and falling according to the boxes'uncontrollable movements. Fortihad soughta choreographicmethod that wouldstrike a balance between the absolute control of balletchoreographers and the freedomof pure improvisation.Drawing from the influencesof Halprin,Cage, and Whitman as wellas thechildren shetaught, her solution was to assignspecific tasks, use props,and setcertain limits for performers to negotiateaccording to theirparticular physical abilities.As Rollersdemonstrates, this strategy propelledaction in the dance, but remained outside of herimmediate control. Forti's work radically