New York's Museum of Modern Art Celebrates Dance

New York's Museum of Modern Art isn't just about visual art. For example, the museum has commissioned artist and choreographer Ralph Lemon to create a three-week program of dance performances by contemporary choreographers, entitled Some sweet day, to be presented in the Museum's Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium from October 15 to November 4. The series showcases three pairings of six choreographers engaged in an aesthetic, generational, and historical dialogue about each other's work and dance in particular. In bringing together choreographers from different backgrounds and eras, Some sweet day demonstrates how the current state of dance can engage with a variety of subjects—such as aesthetics, gender, race, and history—as well the potential of the museum space. The exhibition is part of the ongoing Performance Program organized by MoMA's Department of Media and Performance Art.

The program will begin with Steve Paxton's postmodern works Satisfying Lover (1967) and State (1968), juxtaposed with French conceptual choreographer Jérôme Bel's The Show Must Go On (2001), featuring a cast of New York City dancers. The second and third weeks will feature newly commissioned works created specifically for the Marron Atrium. The second week features the pairing of Congolese dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula with the American experimentalist Dean Moss, including a two-day interstitial performance by American artist Kevin Beasley. The final week features the pairing of Deborah Hay and Sarah Michelson, two dance artists in a generational conversation on movement, space, and time.

The Museum of Modern Art is located at 11 West 53 Street in New York. For more information, visit www.moma.org.