In 1970, Anna Halprin and dancers performed the iconic Parades and Changes at the opening of the University Art Museum’s new building. The choreographer and the museum (now the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive) collaborated again in 2012-13 to develop a new piece that revisits and transforms the original in a contemporary context. Also participating was UC Berkeley’s Theater, Dance & Performance Studies department, production and lighting designer Jim Cave, composer Morton Subotnick, and a group of professional dancers.
Halprin’s revisiting Parades and Changes is “bookending the museum’s tenure in an extraordinary space and celebrating the visionary architecture of the current building,” which it is leaving for seismic safety reasons. The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will reopen in a renovated building in downtown Berkeley in 2015.
Anna Halprin has created 150 dance theater works in a career that spans more than 70 years, and is the recipient of countless awards and honors. Her process-oriented work is grounded in the moment, rather than scripted. Considered radical when first performed, Parades and Changes is the foundation for all of Halprin’s subsequent work.