Doris Totten Chase and Filmdance History, 1960-1980: A Talk by Patricia Failing 

“Filmdance 1890s-1983” was presented at the Public Theater in New York in November and December 1983. Filmdances by leading U.S. filmmakers and choreographers, including Doris Totten Chase, were on view. During this talk, Patricia Failing, author of Doris Chase, Artist in Motion, will examine this seminal survey exhibition and its accompanying catalogue which addressed the contentious topic of “the nature of filmdance."

A selection of excerpts from films and tapes by Chase and other influential artists shown in this Filmdance festival will be screened, among them work by Norman McLaren, Maya Deren, Elaine Summers, Amy Greenfield, Shirley Clark, Risa Jaroslow, and Hilary Harris. These excerpts offer a range of visual and theoretical platforms for analyzing the reception of Chase’s achievements, as well as providing an historical context for her dance films and tapes from the 1970s which are currently on view in Doris Totten Chase: Changing Forms.

Patricia Failing, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Washington, is an independent scholar and critic. In addition to the book on Chase, she is the author of Howard Kottler Face to Face and scores of articles, catalogue essays, and reviews dealing with art museum practices, exhibitions, and contemporary visual artists. She has also published several articles and studies of Edgar Degas’s sculpture. Among her recent projects is an exhibition and catalog for the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, titled Clyfford Still. The Colville Reservation and Beyond, 1934-1939.