The Grand Union was a collective of nine choreographers/ dancers who performed group improvisations from 1970 to 1976. The group evolved out of work by Yvonne Rainer, in particular, Continuous Project-Altered Daily, yet Rainer purposefully subverted her role as leader; each member had an equal give-and-take in the creation and process of the performance. The Grand Union embraced dance, theater, and theatrics in an ongoing investigation into the nature of dance and performance. Performers included David Gordon, Stephen Paxton, Barbara Dilley, Nancy Lewis, Lincoln Scott, Becky Arnold and Douglas Dunn.

Grand Union's performances included both spontaneous and choreographed behaviors-using gesture, dance and voice-manipulating objects or bodies as objects, accompanied by a loosely constructed soundtrack of contemporary songs, music and silence. As Sally Banes writes in Terpsichore in Sneakers, "Just as their concerns varied, the persona each member of the Grand Union projected in performance could shift enormously from one night to the next, from one section of a single performance to another… widely divergent styles and concerns, working within a framework that encouraged provocation, as well as cooperation." Each performance was unpredictable, unrepeatable and ephemeral.