Elaine Summers (1925 – 2014), dancer, innovative choreographer, intermedia visionary, experimental filmmaker, and the creator of the somatic method Kinetic Awareness.
She was an integral member of the Judson Dance Theater that revolutionized modern dance. Her contributions and artistic achievements spanning decades.
Elaine has been recognized as a pioneer of film/dance (dance that can only exist on film) as well as the melding of dance, film, music and environment into a seamless whole, known as intermedia.
As well she was an innovator in the use of multiple forms of improvisation and the use of dance scores to conduct both her choreography and films.
Informing all of her creative work is her techniques of Kinetic Awareness. A body practice that liberates the self from “telling the body what to do” and, instead focuses on what the body wishes to express in movement.
Ancillary Links
https://kineticawarenesscenter.org/teacher_Summers.html
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/divisions/jerome-robbins-dance-division