Trio A/Rainer Variations

First performed as part of The Mind Is a Muscle, Part 1 at Judson Church in 1966, Trio A is one of Rainer’s most iconic dance works. It has been presented in a range of different contexts, but this version—produced in 1978 by Sally Banes, five years after Rainer had given up dance for filmmaking—is now perhaps the most widely seen, and it’s paired here with an inspired and idiosyncratic study by Charles Atlas. “For me,” Atlas explains, “Rainer Variations is a hybrid: a weave of impressionistic portrait, found footage construction, and video sampler. Aside from formal issues, Yvonne Rainer’s knotty process of thinking, her unique brand of humor, and her engaging presence are the things that were foremost in my mind as I worked on the tape.”

Copyright of Yvonne Rainer, courtesy of Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Image copyright of Yvonne Rainer, courtesy of Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.