Simone Forti, postmodern dance pioneer, dies at 91

Simone Forti, a pioneering figure in postmodern dance, has died at age 91, as announced by her gallery Raffaella Cortese. Born in Florence in 1935 to a Jewish family, she emigrated after Mussolini stripped Jewish Italians of citizenship in 1938, moving through Switzerland, France, New York City, and Los Angeles. She studied at Reed College and later with Anna Halprin in San Francisco. In 1959, she returned to New York City, engaging with the downtown performance scene and contributing to Fluxus. Her 'Dance Constructions,' first presented in 1960 at Reuben Gallery and Yoko Ono's Chambers Street Loft Series, influenced the founding of Judson Dance Theater. After a year in Italy studying animal movements, she taught at the School of Visual Arts. In the 1980s, she developed 'Logomotion' and 'News Animations.' She moved to Vermont in 1988 and later taught at UCLA. Her first major retrospective was at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg in 2014, and MoMA acquired her 'Dance Constructions' in 2015. She received the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in 2023.