A farewell dance to the Clocktower Gallery by Min Tanaka

Min Tanaka’s historic connection to the Clocktower is long lasting. His dances at the Clocktower and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1) have signaled and celebrated major times in the history of New York contemporary art and dance practice, including his 1976 dance for the opening of PS1, his legendary dance in 1978 on the snowy rooftop of the Clocktower, and his 2005 dance upon the death of Susan Sontag. In 1999, Tanaka presented Subject: Heuristic Ecdysis, a series of performances that commemorated the anniversary of his first dance at P.S.1.

On November 23rd, Tanaka’s final dance at the Clocktower will be followed by a celebratory public event for the closing of the space.

Min Tanaka was born in 1945 in Tokyo, where he studied modern dance and ballet. In the early 1970s he began to create original dance works exploring the meaning of the body and movement, through improvisation. In an attempt to free the body from functionalism and conventional aesthetics, his dances were often nude, taking place in urban and natural settings. Between 1982 and 1986, he worked closely with Tatsumi Hijikata, founder and powerful guiding spirit of the uniquely Japanese contemporary dance tradition, Butoh, which originated in post-WWII Japan.