Looking and Listening: Lucinda Childs @ Royce

This weekend, UCLA Live is presenting one of the classic postmodern dances choreographed by Judson Church movement pioneer Lucinda Childs at Royce Hall. Created in collaboration with visual artist Sol Lewitt and (at the time emerging) music composer, Phillip Glass, the full length work for eight dancers premiered in 1979 and was considered to be a “breakthrough” in dance by respected critic Alan Kriegsman of the Washington Post.

The reconstructed Dance has been making its way across the globe, reminding audiences of the power and intelligence existing in its articulate dancing and thoughtful composition. Though sometimes Childs has been considered a minimalist and conceptualist, her work for the company is full out dancing—physical, technical and revelatory. In this viewer’s experience, this artist does amazing things with space and allows the simplest changes—in energy, direction or vocabulary—to have profound impact. Drawn in to the rhythm and flow, but then surprised by the detail and simplicity.

The winner of a multitude of American and international awards, commissions and honors, Childs both performed in and choreographed the epic Einstein on the Beach that Robert Wilson directed in 1976. She calls her own work “intense looking and listening,” which may be an accurate way to approach the evening.

Click here to watch the trailer and don’t miss the event!