Research Guides
American dancer, choreographer, and company director
Dean would argue that there is in reality not such thing as “repetition,” and that an attempt to “repeat”[movement] material in fact demonstrates the uniqueness and variety that are inherent in all human activities.
Katy Matheson
Born in Staten Island, New York, December 3, 1945, Laura Dean is considered one of the most significant post-modern choreographers of our time. Dean states, “In my dances the thought process is in the geometric patterns and the pulse. The movement is imposed on top of this . . . When you take a geometrical form (spatial) of any kind that is static and you impose movement (time) on top of it . . . the tension that results is incredible.” Simple movement such as spinning and stomping that are performed in a geometrical template characterizes her choreography. Dean is considered a master of utilizing repetition that becomes hypnotic, altering one’s sense of linear time.
Watch Dean's Sky Light at the Media Arcade in Vol. 28 of the Chamber Dance Company Archive (DVD UWDP 001 v.28).
