Huddle, 1961/2010, Simone Forti

…the 1961 piece consisting of a small group of dancers assembled into a huddle upon which one dancer will occasionally climb in different ways, was casually but energetically performed in front of rows of seated serious looking German journalists at the press preview for the show Move: Art and Dance since the 1960s originally presented by, and co-organized with, the Hayward Gallery in London – where I was sad to have just missed it last year – but this morning I’m lucky to get a sneak preview of the installation at it’s latest venue here in Dusseldorf at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (including works by Janine Antoni, Pablo Bronstein, Trisha Brown, Boris Charmatz, Lygia Clark, William Forsythe, Simone Forti, Dan Graham, Christian Jankowski, Isaac Julien, Mike Kelley, Maria La Ribot, Xavier Le Roy & Mårten Spångberg, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, João Penalva, Tino Sehgal, Franz Erhard Walther, and Franz West plus an amazing video and film database for public viewing including special favorites like Helio Oiticica’s Parnagole, Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A, and the super Michael Clark films by Charles Atlas) right before I head back to Rome – and a special pleasure was the opportunity to meet most of the local and international dancers in town for the show at my Schmela Haus Soup Salon & Talk last night.