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Reinvention of ’18 Happenings in 6 Parts’ (Allan Kaprow)

The Southbank Centre commissioned Rosemary Butcher to reinvent Allan Kaprow's 18 Happening in 6 Parts, first performed in New York in 1959. Butcher's reinvention of this iconic happening formed part of the Hayward Gallery's international exhibition, Move: Choreographing You, cited at The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, London. This work by Butcher has become a part of a sequence called After Kaprow, which has been activated by her enthusiasm for the practice and research that are

involved in the recreation, reinterpretation, and recontextualisation of movement.

The 45-minute performance, by four dancers, took place in a space based on Kaprow's original designs, taking the form of a twelve-metre-long wooden and rope structure. Butcher’s approach was to capture the 'aboutness' of Kaprow's approach to making work, rather than a preoccupation with what actually took place in the gallery. Engaging with Kaprow's archive in conceptual terms she sought to identify a conceptual approach to making work that had an integrity in itself, while carrying forward aspects of Kaprow's approach alongside her own signature practice.

In the space the dancers were directed to respond to activities and tasks through improvised actions with events and props created by artist Edwin Burdis. Butcher maintains that working on the reinvention has changed her choreographic practice. The work has been documented in the book Move: Choreographic you (2010), has received high profile reviews and has been the subject of academic papers (see portfolio).

This project was made possible by Hauser & Wirth and funding from ACE, The Place and South East Dance.