Beyond Allan Kaprow: An interview with Rosemary Butcher

Rosemary Butcher presented her reinvention of Allan Kaprow’s first Happening entitled 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (1959, Reuben Gallery, New York City) in the Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall in London, November 2010 as part of the larger exhibition and performance event ‘Move: Choreographing You’. While remaining critical of the actual performance outcome, Butcher maintains that working on the reinvention has changed her choreographic practice. Two interviews following the reinvention took place; the first at a time where Butcher had embarked on the planning of a new live performance involving film projection, and the second after the presentation of Butcher’s work entitled After Kaprow – The Silent Room, as part of The Place’s Dance on Film series at the Bloomberg Gallery, London, in November 2011. The interviews capture the transitory nature of performance-making processes, the choreographer engaging in speculation and in researching the vague concept of ‘activity’ in relation to movement.