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INVENTORY OF THE YVONNE RAINER PAPERS, 1933-2006, bulk 1959-2001
2006.M.24
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Title: Yvonne Rainer papers
Date (inclusive): 1871-2006 (bulk 1959-2001)
Number: 2006.M.24
Creator/Collector:
Rainer, Yvonne, 1934-
Physical Description:
146.75 linear feet
(151 boxes, 8 flat file folders)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Yvonne Rainer is an avant-garde American dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and writer. Her papers document her life as an artist
from the late 1950s through 2006, and include photographic material dated as early as 1933. Materials include dance scores;
programs and posters; photographic and audiovisual documentation of performances, rehearsals, and films; correspondence; writings,
including Rainer's feature-length film scripts; and critical response to her work.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
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Language: Collection material is in
English
Biographical / Historical Note
Choreographer, dancer, filmmaker and writer, Yvonne Rainer is celebrated as a pioneer of postmodern dance. Her often experimental
and challenging work, continuously produced for more than forty years, has been widely influential. Rainer was born in San
Francisco in 1934. In 1956 she moved to New York with painter Al Held to study acting, but the following year began studying
dance instead.
Rainer's early dance study was comprehensive. From 1957 to 1959 she studied modern dance with Edith Stephen, Afro-Cuban dance
with Emile Faustin and Syvilla Fort, and "body work" with Allan Wayne. She also took lessons at the Martha Graham school for
one year, and at Ballet Arts. In 1960 Rainer attended Ann Halprin's summer workshop in California; studied composition with
Robert Dunn, a composer and friend of John Cage; studied with James Waring; and began eight years of study with Merce Cuningham.
She was performing by 1960, began to present her own choreography in 1961, was a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater
in 1962, and by 1965 had established herself as an influential dancer and choreographer. She left dance for filmmaking in
1975, and returned to dance in 2000.
Rainer choreographed
Three Satie Spoons in Dunn's workshop, and performed it and
The Bells in 1961 at the Living Theater. In 1962, she and other members of Dunn's workshop formed the Judson Dance Theater collective,
which is widely viewed as the foundation of postmodern dance. Artists in other media also participated as dancers in the Judson
Theater performances, including visual artists Robert Rauschenberg, Red Grooms, Robert Morris, and Al Hansen. Rainer was active
in the Judson Dance Theater through 1966. She also formed her own company briefly and participated in the Grand Union dance
collective.
Between 1962 and 1975, Rainer presented her choreography throughout the United States and Europe. During this time she choreographed
over 40 works. Rainer's innovative work broke with dance tradition by incorporating ordinary, everyday movements. Critics
often situate Rainer's work from the 1960s within the context of Minimalism, Fluxus, and performance or event art. Rainer
articulated her approach to dance in her 1965 "No Manifesto": "No to spectacle no to virtuosity no to transformations and
magic and make believe no to glamour and transcendency of the star image no to the heroic no to the anti-heroic no to trash
imagery no to involvement of performer or spectator no to style no to camp no to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the
performer no to eccentricity no to moving or being moved." However, Rainer did not conceive of her choreography as purely
anti-metaphorical, stating in an interview that, "as a dancer I knew it was impossible: the body speaks no matter how you
try to suppress it." (
Art in America, July 1977).
Trio A, part of
The Mind is a Muscle, is perhaps Rainer's best-known work, and it has been performed by many other dancers since its creation.
Rainer began working in film in the mid-1960s, completing five films between 1966 and 1969. In 1968 she began to incorporate
visual materials, including film clips and slides of text and images, into her performances. From 1970 to 1974, her work in
performance and film overlapped. In 1975 she made a full transition to filmmaking and by 1996 had made seven feature-length
films.
Rainer's films address a range of issues, including sexuality, domestic and sexual conflict, U.S. imperialism, social privilege,
gender inequality, disease and aging, as well as everyday activity. The films also contain autobiographical material. Her
earliest three films are non-narrative, mixed media pieces about dance and performance that employ the collage methods of
her live performances. They combine reality and fiction, sound and visual elements to address social and political concerns.
Rainer's latest feature film,
MURDER and murder, featuring a lesbian couple as the main characters, has a more traditional narrative structure.
Rainer returned to dance in 2000 to choreograph work for the White Oak Dance Project, including the piece,
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, and a 2006 work based on Balanchine's AGON, presented at Dance Theater Workshop. In 2002 she also made the video,
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan: Hybrid.
Rainer has published articles about her work and artistic and theoretical concerns throughout her career. Her books include
Yvonne Rainer: Work 1961-73 (l974),
The Films of Yvonne Rainer, a collection of her film scripts (1989),
A Woman Who...: Essays, Interviews, Scripts (1999), and
Feelings are a Fact of Life (2006).
Rainer has received numerous awards and fellowships, including two Guggenheim Fellowships (1969, 1988), three Rockefeller
Fellowships (1988, 1990, 1996), a MacArthur Fellowship (1990-1995), and a Wexner Prize (1995), as well as four Honorary Doctor
of Fine Arts degrees.
Open for use by qualified researchers, except audiovisual materials, which are unavailable until reformatting is complete.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Yvonne Rainer papers, 1933-2006, bulk 1959-2001, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 2006.M.24.
Acquired in 2006 from Yvonne Rainer.
Jocelyn Gibbs did preliminary processing, arranged the collection and wrote the box list in 2006. Martha Steele completed
the processing and wrote the finding aid from January 2007 to through March 2009. Andra Darlington edited the finding aid
in December 2009.
Reformatted Audiovisual Materials
Selected digitized versions are available online.
Connect to selected digitized audio and video recordings. Access is available only to on-site readers and Getty staff.
DVD use copies are available for the following audiovisual materials: DVD2, DVD4, DVD5, DD1, V41, V61, V74-V83, V107, V113,
V124, F10, F24.
50 monographs and two serials were transferred to the library. These publications can be searched in the Library catalog by
doing a Provenance search under "Yvonne Rainer."
Scope and Content of Collection
The Yvonne Rainer Papers document Rainer's work as a dancer, choreographer, performer, film maker and writer, from the late
1950s to 2006. Collection materials include Rainer's personal notebooks; correspondence; work files documenting her choreography,
filmmaking and critical writing; materials documenting her touring, teaching activity, art exhibitions and film retrospectives;
programs and posters; reviews of her work; research files; photographic and audiovisual documentation of her milieu, including
posters and programs for works by contemporary artists and other ephemera. In Series I, Rainer's personal notebooks from 1949
to 2004 provide insight into her creative process. Her appointment books cover most years from 1970 to 2004. The correspondence
in Series II is from dancers, choreographers, other artists, critics and avant-garde associates. Notable correspondents include
Steve Paxton, Robert Morris, Trisha Brown, Joan Jonas, Simone Forti, Jasper Johns, Benjamin Buchloh, Paul Sharits, and Mark
Rappaport. There is also personal correspondence, including letters from Robert Morris during the years that they lived together
from 1964 to 1970, original letters written to her brother Ivan from 1952 through 1967, and letters from her neice, Ruth Rainer,
that document the encouragement and support Rainer provided during the years that her niece studied music and voice in Europe.
Series III contains materials resulting from Rainer's creative process, including descriptions of dances, directions for dancers,
dance scores, music scores, diagrams, drawings, programs (some annotated, some designed by Robert Morris, Steve Paxton and
Robert Rauschenberg), reviews, scripts for dancers, lists of objects used in dances, biographies of dancers, texts for wall
projections, small posters, film scripts (including drafts, some with annotation), shooting notes, production budgets, accounting
sheets, production schedules and notes, character studies, and music rights information. Series III also contains Rainer's
résumé and files of Rainer's published and unpublished writing, including annotated manuscripts and drafts. Additional documentation
of Rainer's works, such as photographs, programs and posters, is in Series V and VII.
Documentation of Rainer's touring, in Series IV, covers her tours in Europe in 1964, 1965 and 1967, and in the United States
from 1968 to 1997. Also in Series IV, conference documentation includes files on Rainer's work with Bérénice Reynaud on Sexism,
Colonialism, Misrepresentation: A Corrective Film Series and Conference, 1988-1989. The same series also contains Rainer's
teaching files from her work at the School of Visual Arts, New York, the Independent Study Program and the Whitney Museum
of American Art, as well as files relating to her lectures, exhibitions, and retrospective screenings of her films.
In Series V, programs and posters are arranged in a chronological sequence, beginning with a list of dance performances from
1961 to 1965. Programs and posters for non-Rainer performances and events are included, especially in the material from the
early 1960s, which include an announcement for Four Happenings (1963) by Allen Kaprow, Robot Opera (1964) by Nam June Paik,
and Robert Rauschenberg's 1952 exhibition, White Paintings, at Leo Castelli gallery. Also in Series V, the files of reviews
provide a history of the critical and popular reception of Rainer's work; Jill Johnston's reviews of dance performances in
the 1960s are particularly well represented here and in the research files in Series VII. Rainer's research files on people,
organizations and a range of topics show her political and social concerns and her exploration of the work of other artists.
The bulk of the photographic materials in Series VII documents Rainer's performances, including many photographs by Peter
Moore. There is also documentation of her films in the form of production stills and frame enlargements, and some family and
other personal photographs including (studio?) portraits of Rainer from the late 1950s, a photograph of Rainer with Andy Warhol
at a reception in the 1960s, photographs of Al Held's studio, and of Robert Morris. Also included are photographs from the
late 1950s and early 1960s of Rainer with Edith Stephan, in Louise Gilkes studio, in an off Broadway play, and at the Ann
Halprin Workshop. The slides are mostly those used in Rainer's performances, but also include portraits of Rainer from 1957
and 1958.
In Series VIII, audiovisual materials include audio and video recordings, film reels, DVD's and a laser disc. Among the films
are Rainer's short films from the 1960s and all of her feature films. Performances documented here include
Three Seascapes,
Room Service,
Trio A,
Trio A with Flags,
Trio A Pressured,
Continuous Project Altered Daily,
In the College,
Performance,
Connecticut Rehearsal, Grand Union performances (copies from the Fales Library, NYU),
We Shall Run,
Chair/Pillow,
Connecticut Rehearsal,
Dance Fractions for the West Coast,
White Oak Dance Project, and
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan. The sound recordings include interviews and music for performances. This series also includes a film possibly by Michael
Fajans and videos by others.
Oversize posters and fliers that cannot be thematically situated in other parts of the archive are described in Series IX.
Finally, writings about Rainer, including published interviews, comprise the last series of the collection, Series X.
Arranged in ten series:
Series I. Notebooks, appointment and address books, 1949-2004;
Series II. Correspondence, 1953-2005;
Series III. Works, 1960-2005;
Series IV. Professional and exhibition files, 1964-2006;
Series V. Programs and reviews, 1959-2006;
Series VI. Topical research files, circa 1951-2005;
Series VII. Photography, 1933-2004;
Series VIII. Audiovisual materials, circa 1963-2003;
Series IX. Oversize materials, 1952-2004;
Series X. Writings about Rainer, dance and film, 1934-2006.
Brown, Trisha, 1936-
Buchloh, B. H. D.
Moore, Peter, 1932-1993
Morris, Robert, 1931-
Rainer, Yvonne, 1934-
Choreographers--United States
Experimental films--United States
Feminist films--United States
Modern Dance--United States
Motion picture producers and directors--United States
Audiocassettes
DVDs
Motion pictures
Negatives (photographic)
Photographic prints
Photographs, Original
Posters
Programs
Slides (photographs)
Videocassettes
Brown, Trisha, 1936-
Buchloh, B. H. D.
Moore, Peter, 1932-1993
Morris, Robert, 1931-