Foreman, Laura, 1936-2001

Laura Foreman was born ca. 1937. She attended the University of Wisconsin in the late 1950s and moved to New York City in the mid-1960s.

Foreman taught at the New School in New York City, beginning her career ca. 1969 and retiring from active teaching in 1990. While at the New School she created the Laura Foreman Dance Theatre and The Composers & Choreographers Theater. Both residencies provided exposure for new and avant-garde choreographers and dancers. Her company performed regularly into the mid 1970s at the Cubiculo and the American Theater Lab.

One of Foreman's best-known pieces was her 1981 Wallwork, created with her husband, the composer John Watts. Wallwork, a conceptual event existed only in advertising posters and on a telephone reservation number, which grew very busy when a sold-out sign was placed on the posters.

After Watts' death in 1982, Foreman concentrated on writing and art. She began exhibiting sculpture in the 1980s. Her most famous piece was Birdhouse as Metaphor, which was at the Souyun Yi Gallery in SoHo in 1990. She won an award for her TimeCoded Woman I, II, III at the Houston International Film Festival. Foreman was also a published author. Her short stories were collected into a book. Foreman died in Manhattan on June 15, 2001.

From the guide to the Laura Foreman papers, 1957-1999, (The New York Public Library. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.)