Judson Memorial Church - birth of postmodern dance

Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square South was the meeting place for artists who formed the Judson Dance Theater in the early 1960s, a loose collective credited with initiating postmodern dance. Experimental choreographers and performers including Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, and Steve Paxton presented nontraditional, everyday-movement works there during informal concerts and workshops. The church’s activities helped shift choreographic practice toward improvisation, task-based movement, and interdisciplinary collaboration in New York and beyond.