“Art is a game between all people of all periods.” —Marcel Duchamp

The Backyard was developed in a residency with Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson at their studio on Mad Brook Farm in Vermont in summer 2017 and 2018. Performed by Megan Bridge and Beau Hancock, this 45 minute improvised dance proposes a hyper-conscious inhabiting of time, space, and relationship; a radical invitation for intimacy and embodiment. Placing Paxton/Nelson’s work PA RT (1978-2002) at the center of our research, The Backyard exists in a landscape of deep listening and rigorous attention. With music by Robert Ashley, this new work is also a palimpsest of PA RT—an effaced manuscript, written over, but still bearing traces of its original form.

Touring

Fidget has toured The Backyard to Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Lublin, Poland, and has performed in Philadelphia at Temple University, as part of the Philly Fringe and at The Performance
Garage.

Creative Team

Creation/Performance: Megan Bridge and Beau Hancock

Music: Private Parts (1978), by Robert Ashley.  Used by permission from Lovely Music and Visibility Music Publishers.

Press for The Backyard

Welcome to the Backyard by Lynn Matluck Brooks

In many languages – the second report from the XXII International Meetings of Dance Theaters in Lublin by Regina Lissowska-Postaremczak

Lisa Nelson and Steve Paxton in Conversation with Megan Bridge and Beau Hancock for Movement Research

Lessons from the Backyard by Megan Bridge and Beau Hancock

The Backyard was partially developed in residence during “Camp Fringe” at FringeArts, Philadelphia, and with support from the Net/TEN Foundation’s Travel Grant.