The Willie Smith Series The Willie Smith Series

The Willie Smith Series

Tharp with video equipment in the attic of the New Berlin farmhouse in 1970. 

Excerpts of Tharp in the farmhouse attic.

Premiere

  • Date

    1 June 1970 – 9 March 1971

  • Venue

    Attic of the house in New Berlin

  • Location

    New Berlin, NY

Production

  • Music by

    Willie “The Lion” Smith

Description

The Willie Smith Series is approximately seventeen hours of videotaped dance improvisations recorded over the course of Tharp’s pregnancy. She improvised daily to a Willie Smith vinyl, but recorded only half an hour every other week. Tharp used a process of elimination to explore what movements were safe as her pregnancy progressed. These recordings were later used to build material for Baker’s Dozen (1979). 

 

The premiere date is an estimation of when Tharp first began recording her improvisations in New Berlin, New York until the end of her pregnancy.