Manifestos often pop up in the arts as the means to draw a line in the sand. They intend to end one expression and launch another.

In dance, Yvonne Rainer pioneered a push to reduce dance to its essential elements. She wanted to strip away the unwanted drama and and expression that had been the norm. In its place she favoured presenting the body as the core dance object.

In 1965, she published her ‘No Manifesto’…

No to spectacle.

No to virtuosity.

No to transformations and magic and make-believe.

No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.

No to the heroic.

No to the anti-heroic.

No to trash imagery.

No to involvement of performer or spectator.

No to style.

No to camp.

No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.

No to eccentricity.

No to moving or being moved.

Sources

The Manifesto : http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_Yvonne_Rainer%27s_NO_Manifesto

Yvonne Rainer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Rainer

Thanks to Helen Omand for sharing this manifesto.

Geoff’s Comment

If a manifesto is to provoke change it needs to change something. This often means the end of something and the beginning of something else. Yvonne Rainer’s No Manifesto is very clear on what is going to stop doing.

Questions

What are you saying ‘no’ to?

What are you going to stop doing?

What is this the end of?