After performing with James Waring and Yvonne Rainer in the 1960s, David Gordon showed work in the first Judson Church performances and was a founding member of the improvisational Grand Union in 1970. He began his Pickup Performance Company the next year and, as its name implies, he works with his own performers on a pickup basis in between commissions for major companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theater of Harlem, and the White Oak Dance Project. Gordon made his Pillow debut in 1981 and later presented a work-in-progress collage that included an excerpt from 1972’s One Part of the Matter. He describes the work seen here as “the fictionalized goings on in a dance company,” constructing the action from everyday interchanges that he has both observed and imagined. Like much of his work, Private Lives of Dancers represents an illusion that is created by real people.
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