The Go-Go dancing platform

Felix Gonzalez-original Torre's concept for the Go-Go dancing platform included an austere box painted white with a perimeter well traced by incandescent bulbs. The platform remained inactive the majority of the time, only to be accessed when a Go-Go dancer became visible, which was always unscheduled and unannounced. The dancer dances to the music emanating from his or her headphones, which is inaudible to the audience. Gonzalez-Torre claimed that the dancer was to wear silver lame bottoms. He never mentioned the gender of the Go-Go dancer, however. Gonzales's work is considered to have touched on a variety of subjects, including loss, breakup, death, and love. In all his artistically works, He invited the audience to figure the reception of the artwork actively. The term “go-go” was derived from the word “a gogo” which is French with the meaning “in abundance.” However, the term was previously thought to have originated from word “la gogue” which means “joy” or simply “Happiness.”

Gonzales-Torres was open in regards to his sexuality. As a gay visual artist, he openly drew this to thinkers and became an agent in social change thus challenged the status quo. Most of His work bears the official title of ‘Untitled’; this was due to the belief that his audience could freely choose an appropriate title for the piece that suited it. The Go-Go dance was used to address the gay identity which was the pillar of his work.

Yvonne Rainer

Yvonne Rainer is recognized for launching the postmodern dance movement and aiding in the foundation of Judson Church as well as the Dance Theater. Her work is unique in the sense that it is fluid and highly appreciated by the audience in both the dance and the art domains. One of best-known work is the Trio A, which was first performed in 1966. Although it received abysmal and unimpressive reviews at the first performance, Trio A has undergone various change, re-performance as well as transformations but more importantly, the piece has solidified since its birth. The dance has been performed in various spaces including both the traditional dance space and the contemporary art space such as museums. Trio A has proven to be real iteration and continued its relevance through repetition although in varied performance. The initial performance was done as a trio by Rainer and her colleagues David Gordon and Steve Paxton, whom she trained. The three performed this piece of art as work in progress in THE MIND IS A MUSCLE, part 1 at the Judson church between 10th and 12th January of the year 1966. However, with time the dance has been revolutionized as a duet as well as a group piece. Trio A takes about five minutes to perform and involved a series of uninflected and continuous movements. In the deceptively simple dance, the performer is not allowed to have direct gaze with his or her audience. The dance was meant initially to be teachable to anybody.

Trio A was originally constructed as a solo performance tht comprised of fluid body movements that connected one motion to the other. The dance does not have a climax an is not possible to predict the next movement as in the traditional dance space. Yvonne purpose in creating the dance was in accord with her drive to break from any repetition which was familiar and dominated her previous work of art.

Yvonne Rainer invested in the process of making dance and the body movement “easier to see” to the audience. Her dance style was task-oriented that focused on energy distribution with an emphasis on a neutral approach to dancer to face the audience. Being the most radical among the founders of Judson dancers, Yvonne Rainer wrote the easy “A Quasi Survey of Some ‘Minimalist’ Tendencies in the Quantitatively Minimal Dance Activity Midst the Plethora.” I was popularly known as the analysis of Trio A. In her theory, she managed to link her manifesto to the new tendencies in dancing to the traditional sculpture.

Freedom in dance and other forms of art contribute to changes in a functioning society. The two artists, both Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Yvonne Rainer, have employed the technique of unpredictability in their works. Felix Gonzalez-Torres argues that the Go-Go dancer should always remain unpredictable, unscheduled and unannounced during the performance. Similarly, Yvonne Rainer made the Trio A dance unpredictable by avoiding repetition in the body movement. Variable techniques have helped the two artworks to survive. Meanwhile, they still undergo different transformations from the original idea. Specifically, Trio A continued to remain true and relevant via repeated, but varied, performances since 1966.

Art is a dominant communication form which uniquely transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries. It is an essential form of expression and remains rooted in the creative potential for transformation and innovation. The artists are silenced through intimidation, harassment, blasphemy, censorship, and imprisonment when they produce controversial products or criticize the authority. The people in the world should have the freedom of expression and creativity.

Yvonne’s work explores different themes around self-expression, spectatorship, as well as the political word. In the early 1970s, the Grand Union went for a trip in India that changed the members’ lives. At the time, the United States of America was experiencing protest against the war in Vietnam. Several members of the Judson dancer’s performed a controversial version of the Trio A where a hanging US flag partially covered their nakedness. Compared to Yvonne’s work also Felix dealt with various social themes. The Application of go-go and Trio A pieces in other pieces of art assist in elucidating performance’s art trajectory seen in the museum of museums. Felix Gonzalez-Torres openly declared himself as a gay man living with HIV/AIDS virus. Despite the extraordinary public politicization, the artist managed to achieve simplicity in his artwork through embedment of poetic meditations on love and loss of everyday life.

Both Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Yvonne Rainer taught their newly-invented dances to dancer and non-dancers alike. The re-performance of the hops over the years served as valid documentation of these pieces. The firsthand teaching about the dance expanded the total number of people experiencing it as viewers and performers. The memory continues plays an integral role in promoting the artists legacy.

Differences in the works

The go-go dancers today entertain people at nightclubs and other venues such as festivals, rave dances and circuit parties. The go-go dancers get the crowd excited using right dancing moves and colorful costumes. The accessories comprise of light chaser, glow sticks, go-go shorts, plastic tubes, musical instruments and animals (usually a snake). The early performance of the 1980s includes John Sex who performed using a python thus portraying the dance as bisexual and guy club dance. The dance became popular in gay clubs by the year 1988 overtaking female participation. The turnaround made the go-go boys enclave into American culture.

The dancers are not strippers as promoters tries try to clear this misconception. The dancers can do the pole routines in nightclubs but do not strip. The lingerie and costumes are provocative but remain intact on the dancer’s body. The performers perform for short intervals with facial expressions and energy. The audience cannot touch the dancers, and they avoid lap dancing and may get fired if found guilty.

The Trio is performed under several names in the various spaces that include modern Art Museums, outdoor, and New York Library for performing art. In the beginning, the series of movement narrated nothing and came out as extremely expressive. The dance had a gentle cleansing effect on the musical filed and assisted modern dance to evolve into postmodern dance. The dancers wore street clothes of various kinds. For instance, the Radich Stephen, a Gallery owner in New York used the American flag to condemn the Vietnam War. Rainer would later perform the now famous piece wearing nothing but a five-foot-long United State flag. The question remains whether it is right to legitimize nudity in the performing arts.

Conclusion

Both works of art discussed in this article have extraordinary contributions to the contemporary art by bringing together the personal history of the artists and politics into familiar forms of minimalism and conceptualism. The artistic dance reveals consistent workings near capacity using various mediums while maintaining creativity. The artworks brought together outstanding postwar Artistic work from Minimalism, Fluxus, Neo-Dada and pop and made them look current and appreciated.



Bibliography

Ault, Julie. 2016. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. 2nd ed. Göttingen: Steidl Verlag.

Rainer, Yvonne. 2013. Feelings are facts: a life.