Sara Rudner’s Radiant Life in Dance

Recognized as one of the great dance artists of contemporary dance, Sara Rudner became a founding member of Twyla Tharp’s dance company in 1965. She collaborated and performed with Tharp for 20 years, then directed the Sara Rudner Performance Ensemble. Jodi Melnick says, “Being with Sara in this dance world is to engage in pure brilliance. The body, the brain, the heart, all shining and pumping at the same time.” Mikhail Baryshnikov called Rudner’s dancing “hypnotic” and asked to perform her iconic solo Heart Beat. Her ecstatic improvising is immortalized in Carolyn Brown and Jim Klosty’s 1975 film Dune Dance. She has choreographed for theatre and opera productions at venues such as the Salzburg Festival and the Paris Opera. As director of dance at Sarah Lawrence College from 1999 to 2019, she has been a beacon of light and a mentor to young dancers. In this program, Melnick and Wendy Perron, two dance artists who worked with Rudner in different decades, will present video excerpts of Rudner in Tharp’s Eight Jelly Rolls, Bix Pieces, and The Catherine Wheel, as well as in her own works like Dancing Parttime, Heart Beat, and the 1999 version of the Dancing-on-View. Perron and Melnick will be in conversation with Rudner about her long dance life and the ways in which she challenged the conventions of concert dance.

Photo Credit: Sara Rudner in Some 'Yes' and More. Photo by Nathaniel Tileston. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

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