Letter to the Editor: Message from Steve (Paxton) about Bob (Ashley)

Thank you, Megan. I gather your “Dust” is still accumulating, and I wish you all the best with it. Ashley had the odd talent of remaining still as his music and text swirled. It was excellent to dance to “Private Parts” for 30 years. It is a woven story of delicious language, but when I hear it now, I recognize its flavor. Not mood or musicality or prosidy or poetry or orchestration or structure, but something fundamental and immediate and only his. A crankiness developed for the entertainment of those of us who can appreciate crankiness. I think you caught him well in this appreciation, especially the use of the woman’s thoughts with which you end. The final innocuous question morphs into the fundamental question with his departure, and so his texts worked; his voice was the most casual drawl of current philosophers/mystics/sages. Whatever. — Steve Paxton

Share this article

PARTNER CONTENT

Keep Reading

  • Interviews

Dance Leadership by the Numbers

Jennifer Passios

A Conversation with Elizabeth “Liza” Yntema of Dance Data Project®

At the RISE 2025 Summit held at the New York Library for the Performing Arts, panelists for a discussion entitled “Data is Revolutionary” gather in black office chairs with silver legs in front of a large projector screen that reads “Dance Data Project, Harriet Tubman Effect Institute, & Women Count” in a pastel blue above the title “Data is Revolutionary” in a light yellow. Six circles containing the headshots of the panelists dot the rest of the projection. Amidst the other seated speakers, Nancy Owen stands holding a microphone in her right hand. She leans forward toward the audience, eyes alight, mouth open in speech that slips through an excited smile. In the lower left corner of the frame, a bald man in a crisp blue suit brings the crook of his thumb and second finger to his chin at stage right. He looks out toward the audience with his chair angled away from the six panelists.
Photo by Victoria Detres
  • Interviews

Meanwhile, in an Indoor Meadow: An Interview with Andrew Skeels

Caedra Scott-Flaherty

A new dance and exhibition explore growth and change in an intimate setting.

Andrew Skeels, a White man with buzzed hair, wearing a black T-shirt, stands against a black background. He is turned to the side but looks directly out with a soft smile.
Photo: Damian Siqueiros