Images L to R: Simone Forti News Animation, Dance Theatre Workshop, 1988 Image courtesy of the artist and The Box,LA; K.J. Holmes performing Pinecones at the Danspace Gala 2019 honoring Simone Forti, photo by Ian Douglas; Screencapture of Simone Forti Zuma News, 2013 Camera by Jason Underhill Image courtesy of the artist and The Box, LA

Sundays on Broadway curator Cathy Weis with co-curators David Guzman and Zo Williams present an evening of video by Simone Forti and tribute performance by K.J. Holmes.

Three of Simone Forti’s News Animations videos will be screened with dates ranging from 1988 to 2013. In this selection of News Animations we watch Forti move (and frequently speak) with a distinct object - a stuffed rabbit named Manny, a thick stack of newspapers fighting against the tide of the pacific surf, a pair of canvases each painted with ‘stars’ and ‘stripes,’ respectively.

“Simone Forti has always “danced” the news, it’s the way she tells them. But, above all, it’s the way she internalizes them, feels them, and processes them. Through a stream of consciousness, the artist grants voice and body to thoughts about the world, its conflicts, war, injustices, and inequalities.” (Nero Press, News Animations 2021)

K.J. Holmes will perform an improvised solo in conjunction with an array of Simone Forti’s films. Holmes is forever indebted to Simone Forti for being a mentor, an inspiration, a friend.

Sundays on Broadway
6:00 p.m. - doors open at 5:45 p.m.
WeisAcres, 537 Broadway #3
New York, NY 10012

All donations go to the performers.
$5-20 suggested.

Artists' Bios:

Simone Forti (b. 1935) is a dancer/choreographer/artist/writer based in Los Angeles. Born in Florence, Italy, Forti emigrated with her family to Los Angeles in 1938. In 1955 she began dancing with Halprin, who was doing pioneering work in dance improvisation. After four years of working with Anna in Northern California, Forti moved to New York where she studied composition at the Merce Cunningham Studio with educator/musicologist Robert Dunn. In these classes, which focused on the work of John Cage, she met and began working informally with choreographers including Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton. In the spring of 1961, Forti presented a full evening of pieces she called Dance Constructions at Yoko Ono’s loft studio. Over the years, Forti returned to improvisation, including extensive collaborations with musicians like Charlemagne Palestine and Peter Van Riper. Since the early 1980s, she has been practicing a form wherein movement and words spontaneously weave together. Taking the news as her subject matter, Forti calls these performances News Animations.

K.J. Holmes is a dance artist. She was a member of Simone Forti and Troupe from 1986 to 1996 and continues to be an ambassador of Forti’s work leading her Dance Constructions as well as sharing her many improvisational structures, dances, and ideas throughout the world.

Special thanks to the Jacki Apple Fund and to the many generous supporters.