MEDIATHEK

Trajal Harrell was born in Douglas, Georgia. He graduated from Yale University where he studied American Studies with a concentration in creative processes ― researching theater, literary theory, and art history. Currently his choreographic work proposes an alternative historicity of early postmodern American dance. By bringing together aesthetic theories from the Judson legacy with the Voguing dance tradition (an underground African-American and custom of social performance and fashion show appropriation begun in Harlem during the same time as Judson Dance Theater), Harrell complexifies the historical narrative of the Judson period and its subsequent influence on American and European contemporary dance. Beginning in 2001, the choreographer used these two contrasting aesthetics and their parallel histories to stimulate a dialogue about the American as well as international youth culture obsession with Cool, investigating the evolution of Cool and the interchange between Cool as a social motivation and Cool as an aesthetic. The choreographer has most recently ventured forth to examine the production and visibility of community and audience within performance. (Quelle: http://betatrajal.org) / jst