Foreman, Laura

Laura Foreman was a dancer, choreographer, visual artist, writer and director of dance at New School University. She lived and worked in New York City from the mid-1960s until her death. Foreman worked primarily in dance for the first decade of her time in Manhattan, operating both the Laura Foreman Dance Company and Composers' and Choreographers' Theatre with her husband, John Watts. In the late 1970s she began working in more abstract performance and visual art. Perhaps her most well-known piece was 1981's "Wallwork," a collaboration with Watts which took the form of a rigorous advertising campaign for a nonexistent performance. After Watts's death in 1982, Foreman's work shifted towards visual art and writing. She created an extensive sculpture series, "Birdhouse as Metaphor," which consisted of numerous functional and non-functional birdhouses and showed in 1990 at Souyun Yi Gallery. In 1997, Close Encounters, a volume of Foreman's short stories, was published by Outloud Books. Foreman died of cancer in Manhattan in 2001. Source: Dunning, Jennifer. "Laura Foreman, 64, Director Of Dance at the New School." The New York Times, July 5, 2001. Stage Works: - Solo Suite (1967) - A Time (1968) - Perimeters (1969) - Untitled (1970) - Epicycles (1970) - Signals (1970) - glass and shadows (1971) - Laura's Dance (1971) - Songandance (1972) - Margins (1972) - Spaces (1972) - Locrian (1973) - Performance (1973) - city of angels (1974) - a deux (1974) - Postludes (1974) - Bud / Monopoly (1975) - Program (1976) - Heirlooms (1977) - Entries (1978) Artworks: - TimeCoded Woman (1979-80) - Coney Island Cray-Pas (1981) - Philadelphia Story (1981) - Poetry Peep Show (1981) - Roomwork (1981) - Wallwork (1981) - Reclining Nudes (1982) - Sweet Land of Liberty (1983) - Word Painting / I have nothing to paint and I'm painting it (1983) - Birdhouse as Metaphor (1989-93) - Cry Uncle (1991) - Window on the World (1995) - Shacks of America (undated) Written Works: - A Message to Michael (1990) - Close Encounters (1997)

American avant-garde dancer and choreographer, Laura Foreman (ca. 1937-2001) served a long tenure as the director of dance at the New School for Social Research from the late 1960s until the time of her death.

Foreman came to New York City in the mid-1960s, having received a degree in dance from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and having toured with the Tamiris-Nagrin Dance Company. In 1963, Foreman married the composer John Watts, who also would join the faculty of the New School. Frustrated by the lack of funding opportunities for presenters of new dance and music in New York, the two formed the Composers and Choreographers Theatre (CCT) in 1964. This non-profit organization helped to sponsor performances and to develop training and educational programs. Foreman directed the Choreographers Theatre and Watts served as the director of the Composers Theater. Choreographers Theatre became affiliated with the New School in 1969, establishing an autonomous dance department within the university that produced a general dance curriculum, as well as a professional certificate program. Foreman's ChoreoConcerts series gave exposure to the work of a wide range of composers and choreographers, many of whom explored the uses of electronics in music or incorporated a variety of media into their performances. Under the aegis of Choreographers Theatre, Foreman also presented her own work with the Laura Foreman Dance Company. The group performed regularly into the mid-1970s at such venues as the Judson Memorial Church, the Cubiculo, and the American Theatre Lab. One of Foreman's best-known pieces was Wallwork (1981), a conceptual event that attracted a great deal of publicity. After Watts' death in 1982, Foreman concentrated on writing and visual art. She began exhibiting sculpture in the 1980s, receiving attention for a 1990 show, Birdhouse as Metaphor. Foreman's short stories were collected into a book, Close Encounters (1997).