"I was a dancer and choreographer and I had worked with the Judson Dance Theatre it was all about no music, pedestrian movement, performing in alternative spaces, avoiding all the traditional trappings. Here was Bob, though, in a theatre, with a composer and lighting it was such a contemporary sensibility. I'd never seen anything like it. I met Bob shortly thereafter at a festival, and he talked right away about working together on Einstein on the Beach [with composer Philip Glass]."
"Day to day we were never sure if he was going to review what we had done or start again. You just would come up with something and run with it and see what happened. We would improvise day after day and narrow it down and see what worked. He was never entirely specific about what he wanted, but somehow he got exactly what he wanted."
"The next thing we worked on was Patio [full title: I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating]. Right after Einstein, he gave me a 38-page script and said, Tell me what you think. And, of course, I loved it. He thought of text in different ways. Not necessarily the meaning or the narrative aspect, but the music of it, the timing and the rhythm. He just had a unique way of thinking."
In 1975 a production of A Letter for Queen Victoria introduced a dancer-choreographer who had worked with Judson Dance Theatre to Bob’s theatrical, composer- and lighting-based approach. The choreographer met Bob at a festival and collaborated on Einstein on the Beach with composer Philip Glass, working in a lower Manhattan studio through improvisatory rehearsal processes. Rehearsals involved experimenting, narrowing material, and trusting Bob’s often-unspecified directions that nevertheless yielded precise results. Their next project, Patio, began with a 38-page script; Bob treated text as musical material and often communicated directions through small drawings and meticulous lighting design.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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