Wendy Perron Papers
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Perron wrote reviews for The Soho Weekly News and focused on a range of experimental performance practices that flourished in New York during the late 1970s. Being knowledgeable of the historical circumstances under which experimental "performance art" emerged in New York, she was among the earliest critics to write about this then new genre combining thick description and critical analysis. This collection consists of clippings of articles Perron wrote for The Soho Weekly News from 1976-1978, as well as programs, flyers, and other ephemera from dance performances in the 1970s-1980s.
Biographical Note
Wendy Perron is a dancer, teacher, writer, and author of Through the Eyes of a Dancer (Wesleyan University Press, 2013). She started her career as a dancer and choreographer in New York in the early 1970s. A member of the Trisha Brown Company from 1975 to 1978, she also danced for such choreographers as Kenneth King, Rudy Perez, Sara Rudner, and Twyla Tharp. She choreographed more than 40 pieces for the Wendy Perron Dance Company from 1983 from 1997. From 1976 to 78 she wrote for, and at times edited, the "Concepts in Performance" page of the Soho Weekly News. Perron has also written for the New York Times, the Village Voice, Dance Europe, and Dance Magazine, where she was editor in chief from 2004 to 2013.
Since the 1970s, Perron has taught aspects of dance at Bennington, Princeton, NYU, City College of New York, and Rutgers and has been a guest teacher, lecturer, or adjudicator, across the country. In 2011 she was the first dance artist inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame. Currently she teaches a graduate seminar in the dance department of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She also writes commentary for her own website at wendyperron.com.
Arrangement
Arranged in two series:
Series I. Concepts in Performance
Series II. Performance Notes and Ephemera
Scope and Content Note
The Wendy Perron Papers (dated 1973-2001) consist of a collected run of Perron's "Concepts in Performance" column, published in The Soho Weekly News from 1976-1978, as well as programs, flyers, and other ephemera from dance performances in the 1970s and 1980s. In her column, Perron reviews a range of experimental performance practices that flourished in New York during the late 1970s. Among these are Steve Paxton's Contact Improvisation, Laurie Anderson's sound performances involving electric violin, Trisha Brown's Accumulation pieces, and Merce Cunningham's integrations of dance, music, and theatre. Other artists and ensembles whose performances Perron reviews are John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Michael Kirby, Jackson Mac Low, Meredith Monk, Yvonne Rainer, Stuart Sherman, Squat Theatre, and Robert Wilson.
Perron is among the earliest critics to write about the genre known as "Performance Art." In the 1970s, "Performance Art" came to designate experimental forms of embodied expression that fell outside the conventional categories of theatre, dance, or music. Her writing combines thick description and critical analysis, a combination which not only allows readers to visualize the performances that occurred, but also sheds light on the aesthetic, political, and theoretical issues underlying a given piece. Moreover, she is knowledgeable about the historical circumstances under which performance art emerged in New York and thus is able to identify the central characteristics informing performance art of the 1970s and to distinguish it from 1960s experimental theatre.
Subjects
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Wendy Perron Papers; MSS 123; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired through donation from Wendy Perron in December 2001 and June 2019; the accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2001.123 and 2019.035.
Separated Material
There is no information about materials that are associated by provenance to the described materials that have been physically separated or removed.
About this Guide
Revisions to this Guide
Edition of this Guide
Repository
Series I. "Concepts in Performance"
Arrangement
Items are arranged chronologically within each folder.
Miscellaneous Originals, 1976-1978, 1976-1978, inclusive
Scope and Content
-Grow Up or Shut Up or Tell Me Something New, by Robert Patrick, October 6th, 1977
-Exclusive, Never-Before-Published in the History of Man Interview with Sigmund Freud, by Lewis Grossberger, October 6th, 1977
-Reading For Fun and Art's Profit, by Wendy Perron, no date given
-Deep Breathing Accordion, by Wendy Perron, no date given
Duplicates, 1976-1978, 1976-1978, inclusive
Scope and Content
All items in this folder are duplicates of the materials listed above; the contents are identical to that of Folder 1.
Articles, 1976, 1976, inclusive
Scope and Content
-Finding a Thread in a Haystack, reviews by Wendy Perron and others, January 22nd, 1976
-Of Baggage, Short Stories, and Reflections, reviews by Wendy Perron and others, January 29th, 1976
-Followable Dancing, review of Mary Overlie and David Gordon, by Wendy Perron, March 4th, 1976
-Energy Sparks, review of Wendy Rogers, by Wendy Perron, March 11th, 1976
-Performance Diary, by Peter Frank, April 1st, 1976 (incomplete article)
-Unadorned, review of Suzanne Harris, by Wendy Perron, April 8th, 1976
-People Improvisation, review of Grand Union, by Wendy Perron, May 6th, 1976
-New Dimensions in Self-Consciousness, review of Michael McClard, by Wendy Perron, May 20th, 1976
-Small Night Music in a Fog, Review of Yoshimasa Wada, by Peter Zummo, May 27th, 1976
-Undiscovered: Bill Horowitz, review of Bill Horowitz, by Wendy Perron, May 27th, 1976
-Keeping in Line, review of Philip Glass, Dickie Landry, Andy DeGroat, by Sally Banes, June 3rd, 1976
-The Ceremony of Leonard Crow Dog, reviews of Leonard Crow Dog, June 10th, 1976
-Unpremeditated Honesty, review by Wendy Perron, June 10th, 1976
-Consuming Determination, review of Lucinda Childs, by Wendy Perron, June 17th, 1976
-It All Depends on How You Define It, review of Wendy Perron, by Robert J. Pierce, June 17th, 1976
-Death or Rebirth, review of Julie Hymen, by Mark Savitt, July 1st, 1976
-Discovery, review of Tony Azito, by Wendy Perron, July 1st, 1976
-Letters, response by John Malpede to Perron's June 10th review, July 1st, 1976
-When Is a Recital Not? review of U.S. Terpsichore, by Robert J. Pierce, July 8th, 1976
-Secret Life of Cities Surrealistic Baedekers, Review of Meredith Monk and Ping Chong, July 8th, 1976
-Downtown Exiles, review of Tony Kushner, et al. by Stephanie Woodward, September 30th, 1976
-Live and Non-Live; Motion and Stillness, review of Sylvia Whitman, by Wendy Perron, Nov. 25th, 1976
-Three Angles on a Three Part Structure, review of Michael Kirby, by Wendy Perron, Dec. 2nd, 1976
-Roots and Rituals, review of Geoff Hendricks, by Sally Banes, December 9th, 1976
-Backworks, review of Barbara Moore and Jon Hendricks, by Wendy Perron, Dec. 9th, 1976
-Older is Better, review of Merce Cunningham, by Wendy Perron, December 16th, 1976
-Transmission From Space, Review of Earth, Moon, Mars, and Jupiter, by Peter Zummo, Dec. 23rd, 1976
-Exporting SoHo, by Wendy Perron, December 30th, 1976
Articles, 1976 (Duplicates), 1976, inclusive
Scope and Content
All items in this folder are duplicates of the materials listed above; the contents are identical to that of Folder 3.
Articles, 1977, 1977, inclusive
Scope and Content
-Improvisation Part I: The Man Who Gets Away With It, review by Wendy Perron, January 6th, 1977
-Improvisation Part II: Acquaintanceship, review by Wendy Perron, January 13th, 1977
-Knife's Edge, review of Beth Soll, by Wendy Perron, January 20th, 1977
-Politics as Analysis, review of Lee Breuer, by Madeleine Burnside, January 20th, 1977
-Going to Pieces, review by Stephanie Woodward, January 27th, 1977
-Lost In Translation: The Americanization of Jewish Humor, by Wendy Perron, February 3rd, 1977
-David Behrman, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, review by Peter Zummo, February 3rd, 1977
-Bad Taste, review of Now I Know Why Cannibals Eat Their Enemies, by Sally Banes, Feb. 10th, 1977
-Reading Writing, review of women writers, by Wendy Perron, February 17th, 1977
-Haystack, review of performance art, by Wendy Perron, February 24th, 1977
-Words That Work, review of Robert Barry, by Wendy Perron, March 3, 1977
-When the Wind is High, review of Trisha Brown, by Stephanie Woodward, March 10th, 1977
-Inner Vision Outer Space, review of Nancy Topf, by Stephanie Woodward, March 17th, 1977
-Chosen Toil, review of Steve Paxton, by Stephanie Woodward, March 24th, 1977
-Works With Words, review of Lawrence Kucharz, by Peter Zummo, March 31st, 1977
-Looking the Other Way, review of James Barth, by Wendy Perron, April 7th, 1977
-Half Hazard, by Wendy Perron, April 14th, 1977
-Elemental Sounds, review of Alvin Lucier, by Peter Zummo, April 28th, 1977
-Black Holes at Large, review of Star Station, by Wendy Perron, April 28th, 1977
-Nursery Rhymes, review of Julia Heyward and Paula Longendyke, May 5th, 1977
-New Mysteries, review of The Venue Caft Byrd Hoffman Studio, June 2nd, 1977
-Kushner Bares All, review of Robert Kushner, by Wendy Perron, June 9th, 1977
-Guesswork, review of Meredith Monk, by Wendy Perron, June 16th, 1977
-A Rhythmical Guy, review of Dave Van Tieghem, by Stephanie Woodward, June 23rd, 1977
-Only an Illusion, review of street performance, by Wendy Perron, July 14th, 1977
-Cuba, New York, review of New Cuban Cinema, by Stephanie Woodward, July 21st, 1977
-Direct to the Heart, review of the Big Apple Circus, by Stephanie Woodward, July 28th, 1977
-Starting From Nothing, review of Michael Moschen, by Wendy Perron, September 22nd, 1977
-That's Entertainment, review of Becky Arnold, by Sally Banes, October 13th, 1977
-Fearless Squatters, review of Squat Theatre's Pig, Child, Fire, by Wendy Perron, October 20th, 1977
-Poor White Tails, review of Tony Azito, by Wendy Perron, November 10th, 1977
-New Morning, review of Tall Tree, by Wendy Perron, November 24th, 1977
-Susan Sontag: On Writing, Art, Feminism, Life and Death, interview by Wendy Perron, December 1st, 1977
-Voices of Many Voices, review of Julia Heyward and Pooh Kaye, by Wendy Perron, December 15th, 1977
-Cage's Shell Game, review of John Cage, by Wendy Perron, December 29th, 1977
Articles, 1977 (Duplicates), 1977, inclusive
Scope and Content
All items in this folder are duplicates of the materials listed above; the contents are identical to that of Folder 5.
Articles, 1978, 1978, inclusive
Scope and Content
-45 Minutes, Spent With Friends, review of Wendy Perron and Susan Rethorst, by Robert J. Pierce, Jan. 19th, 1978
-Within You/Without You, review of Robert Ashley, by Sally Banes, January 19th, 1978
-Historical Immaterialism, review of Ann Wilson's Butler's Lives of the Saints, by Sally Banes, January 26th, 1978
-Two-Track Mind, review of Amy Taubin, by Wendy Perron, January 26th, 1978
-Failure: An Exhibition, review of Bill Lundberg, by Jane Dubose Jones, February 2nd, 1978
-Gallery Humor, review of Michael Smith, by Noel Carroll, February 2nd, 1978
-Austerity and Oppression, review of Worksong, by Wendy Perron, February 23rd, 1978
-Poet in the Bathroom, review of Barbara Kruger, by Louise Steinman, February 23rd, 1978
-Dummy Duality, review of Charles Ludlam's The Ventriloquist's Wife, by Eileen Blumenthal, Feb. 23rd, 1978
-Engineering Images, review of Sylvia Whitman, by Sally Banes, March 16th, 1978
-Spring Mumbo-Jumbo, review of Anna Halprin, by Sally Banes, March 23rd, 1978
-Humor, Blood, and Guts, review of Lanny Harrison, by Wendy Perron, March 30th, 1978
-Lovely Lifelessness, review of Love of Life Orchestra, by Wendy Perron, April 20th, 1978
-Adored, review of The Children of Theatre Street, by Wendy Perron, May 1st, 1978 (incomplete article)
-On the Rocks, review of Pooh Kaye, by Wendy Perron, May 4th, 1978
-The End of the Trail, Review of Echo Ranch, by Noel Carroll, May 11th, 1978
-Flu as Fashion and Art as Business, review of Richard Foreman's Fashion Show, by Sally Banes, May 18th, 1978
-A Promising Journeyman, review of Hard Pore Corn, by Noel Carroll, May 18th, 1978
-Dancing Working, review of Miner's Lamp Dance Group, by Wendy Perron, May 25th, 1978
-Sweet, review of Short and Suite, by Sally R. Sommer and Erica Sommer, June 1st, 1978
-Celebrating Survival, review by Sally Banes, June 15th, 1978
-P.S. Afterthoughts, review of Patti Smith, by Wendy Perron, June 15th, 1978
-N Structures, No Cages, review of Simone Forti and Peter Van Riper, by Wendy Perron, August 31st, 1978
-Tout Sweet, review of Andy deGroat and Dancers, by Sally Banes, August 31st, 1978
-Paxton Untitled, review of Steve Paxton, by Yvonne Rainer, November 16th, 1978
Articles, 1978 (Duplicates), 1978, inclusive
Scope and Content
All items in this folder are duplicates of the materials listed above; the contents are identical to that of Folder 7.
Series II. Performance Notes and Ephemera, 1973-2001, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
This series consists of ephemera, programs, and publications concerning dance performances in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.
Arrangement
This series has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
