The Prepared Body: Deborah Hay

In summer 2016, New York dancer and choreographer Deborah Hay, a member of the radically experimental Judson Dance Theatre in the 1960s, takes up the Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship for Dance and Performance. In conversation with Renate Graziadei (Tanzkollektiv laborgras), she offers an insight into her work and presents the project which she will be working on with her students. Introduction: Gabriele Brandstetter.

"The body is capable of so much more than what it can do. For example, the range of sound coming from the piano was more or less constant until John Cage created the prepared piano by introducing different objects that were placed between or on the strings, hammers or dampers. These outside components altered the piano’s harmonics. In a similar way the students will be given several compelling questions used to access an otherwise unnoticed bodily intelligence." (Deborah Hay)

In cooperation with the Institute for Theatre and Dance Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).