Master of Fine Arts Lecture Series presents: Yvonne Rainer

December 2, 2009
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
University Park Campus
Graduate Fine Arts Building
Lecture Forum

Artist, dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and writer Yvonne Rainer has been called "an avant-garde giant" by the New York Times. Born in San Francisco in 1934, she was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater in 1962, the genesis of a movement that proved to be a vital force in modern dance in the following decades. Between 1962 and 1975 she presented her choreography throughout the United States and Europe. Since 1972 Rainer has completed seven feature-length films, beginning with Lives of Performers and, more recently, Privilege (1990, winner of the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival and the Geyer Werke Prize at the 1991 International Documentary Film Festival in Munich), and MURDER and murder (1996, winner of the Teddy Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival and Special Jury Award at the 1999 Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival). She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, notably two Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellowship, a Wexner Prize, seven NEA awards, three Rockefeller Fellowships, and four honorary doctor of fine arts degrees.

Yvonne Rainer, Trio A, 1978. 16mm film produced by Sally Banes.