Dance Studies Colloquium: Janice Ross (Stanford University), “The Dancer’s Home as A Hidden Archive: Anna Halprin’s Dance Deck”

This talk theorizes domestic spaces and objects in a dancer’s home as hidden archives of aesthetic invention. It posits four objects from the mid-century modern home of the dancer Anna Halprin and the Urban Designer Lawrence Halprin’s Northern California residence - stairs, chairs, decks and windows -  as strong influences shaping both Halprins’ movement invention and choreography. Through a close reading of one of these, the large redwood deck on the side of the Halprin property, known internationally as “The Dance Deck,” this talk traces the confluence of nature, landscape and the body in performance. Designed collaboratively by theater and lighting designer Arch Lauterer, and Lawrence Halprin, this open-air laboratory was where Anna grew the dance works that defined her as a leading contemporary dance artist. The most famous feature of the Halprin property, this platform cantilevering off the hillside below the Halprin home, is where for 70 years thousands of dancers from around the world came to study, perform, and observe. Working in the midst of nature on this dance surface punctured by the trunks of Madrone trees, Halprin and her students stretched dance’s boundaries. The result was a radical rethinking of scale, norms, and gestural repertoires of bodies as performing mediums. The material for this talk is drawn from Janice Ross’s newest book; The Choreography of Environments, (Oxford University Press, Spring 2025). 

This event is open to the public and part of AIR.