The work of choreographer Xavier Le Roy lies behind one of the most notable museum exhibitions this year, Tino Seghal’s conversation-meets-performance piece Progress, which made its way up the Guggenheim’s rotunda this past March. Seghal began his career as a dancer, performing in Le Roy’s workshop-like piece E.X.T.E.N.S.I.O.N.S. (1999-2001), in which dances were created through group-based improvisational activities. Seghal also participated in Le Roy’s Project (2003), which brought the lessons learned from E.X.T.E.N.S.I.O.N.S. to the performance space. In Project, a series of performers rotate in and out of the piece, their movements dictated by the rules of a game: the stage becomes a field, the dance, a sports contest. In his highly diverse body of work, Le Roy manages to combine a host of approaches to performance: an athleticism focused on extending the possibilities of movement, quotidian bodily gestures gleaned from the choreography of Yvonne Rainer and Simone Forti, and a playful and modest sense of spectacle previously explored by Stuart Sherman. It is clear to see how this interesting mix of influences, consolidated by Le Roy, led Seghal to develop a practice of artmaking centered on the orchestration of simple activities in the gallery space.
Come tonight to the Martin Segal Theatre Center at 7:30 pm to hear Xavier Le Roy discuss his highly experimental and exploratory approach to performance.
By ANDREW CAPPETTA
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Xavier Le Roy at the Segal Center