Ball Dance, 1975

Performed at 15 Dance Lab, Toronto
May 2 & 3, 1975

Performers: Elizabeth Chitty, Johanna Householder and Bruce Wilson

The movement was determined by chance plotting on the graph on which the outline of a ball had been traced:
D = distance of throw
F = force of throw
B = byoyancy of thrower
W = weight of catcher

Conceptual art and sculptural concerns about the nature of materials influenced this work as well as chance procedure. The work was also influenced by Yvonne Rainer’s No Manifesto, which I had studied in Dance Criticism class with Selma Odom at York University. The multidisciplinary climate of the artist-run centres in the 1970s was fertile ground for my early work (in Toronto at that time they were A Space (directed by poet Victor Coleman) and Art Metropole (General Idea) – the works in Dances included movement, text, film and video.

The evening program, Dances, also included:

Timeline (performers: Judy Hendin, Maxine Heppner, Johanna Householder, Joan Phillips and Elizabeth Chitty; music: Nicholas Kilbourn; film: Carolyn Simmons)
Tomb (performers: Judy Hendine, Maxine Heppner, Joan Phillips, Elizabeth Chitty, Bruce Wilson)
Polyfil (performers Bruce Wilson, Elizabeth Chitty)