Viola Farber

Viola Farber (February 25, 1931 – December 24, 1998) was an American choreographer and dancer.
Biography
Viola Farber was born on February 25, 1931, in Heidelberg, Germany. In Germany, Farber began dancing. However, at the age of six she was discouraged by her parents. At the age of seven, Farber and her family moved to the United States. Even though her parents did not allow her to dance, Farber continued dancing on her own, though she focused more of her energy on learning to play the piano. During the one year that Farber spent at the University of Illinois studying music, she began taking dance classes from Margaret Erlanger. When Farber transferred to George Washington University, she focused on both music and dance. By 1952, Farber had transferred once again, to Black Mountain College was dance with Katherine Litz and music with Lou Harrison.
In 1953, Farber became a founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She created many roles in Cunningham's works, such as Crises, Paired Rune, and Nocturne. Farber is described as being “one of the great individualists of the company”. At this time, she also took various dance classes from Margaret Craske and Alfred Corvino in New York, and from Erika Thimey in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Farber was dancing with other choreographers. She performed the role of the vampire in Litz's Dracula as well as dancing with Paul Taylor's early company. Farber was the only female pianist in the first performance of Erik Satie's Vexations (organized by John Cage, and lasting over 18 hours). In 1965, she left Cunningham's company and in 1968, began her own company.
Viola Farber’s Dance Company and style
Through having her own dance company, The Viola Farber Dance Company, Farber developed her own signature dance style. She often used improvisation in her rehearsals and in some of her first works. She allowed her dancers to rearrange and reshape the movement, however she set explicit limits. Her dancers were allowed to do whatever they wanted ”. Farber would almost ask dancers to manipulate the phrase and provided cues for beginning different sections. Although, these cues were never related to the music. Jeff Slayton, a member of the company and Farber’s longtime partner and ex-husband, commented that “if a dance had internal or set musical cues, we changed the music”. Her work challenged audiences and was often found compelling. The pieces Poor Eddie (1973) and Willi I (1974) were described as sadomasochistic, while No Super, No Boiler (1974) and Lead Us Not into Penn Station (1975) had humorous themes, and Dune and Nightshade (both choreographed in the early 1970s) had quiet themes. Most of the Farber's pieces were set to original scores, or were performed in silence. However, a few of her pieces were choreographed to classical music. For example, Nightshade was set to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14.
Farber died on December 24, 1998, in Bronxville, New York.
Works
Choreography by Viola Farber for Viola Farber Dance Company
1968
Excerpt
1969
Duet For Mirjam and Jeff
Quota
Passage
Standby
1970
Tendency
Area Code
Curriculum
Co-Op
Mildred
1971
Survey
Patience
1972
Default
Route 6
Dune
Poor Eddie
1973
Soup
Spare Change
1974
Willi I
Some of the Symptoms
Dinosaur Parts
No Super, No Boiler
Defendant
Houseguest
1975
Motorcycle/Boat
Night Shade
Duet For Willi and Susan
1976
Five Works For Sneakers
Some Things I Can Remember
Sunday Afternoon
1977
Brazos River (Collaboration with Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor, Fort Worth Museum – Dance on Camera)
Lead Us Not Into Penn Station
Solo
1978
Turf
Doublewalk
Private Relations
Dandelion
Local
1979
Duet
Ledge
Tide
1980
Tracks
Bright Stream
1981
Bequest
Choreography for Viola Farber Dance Company while in residency at Le Centre National de Dance Contemporaine d’Angers (The French National Center for Contemporary Dance) 1981-1983
1981
Cinq Pour Dix
Attente
Villa-Duage
1982
Etudes
Echanges
1983
Écritures Sur L’Eau
Other works choreographed by Viola Farber
1965
Seconds (Solo for Viola Farber)
1965
Notebook (Quartet for June Finch, Margaret Jenkins, Dan Wagoner, and Rosalind Newman)
1968
Time Out (Solo for Viola Farber)
Legacy (Solo for Viola Farber)
1969
Tristan and Iseult (Duet collaboration with Don Redlich)
The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Collaboration with Peter Saul)
1970
Passengers (Repertory Dance Theater- Utah)
1971
Pop. 18 (Ohio State University, Columbus)
Pop. 11 (NYU Performing Arts)
Five In The Morning (Repertory Dance Theater)
1972
Window (Ruth Currier Dance Company)
1973
Untitled Work (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
1975
Minnesota Mash (University of Minnesota, Minn.)
1976
Untitled Work (Margaret Jenkins Workshop in San Francisco)
Temporary Site (Nancy Hauser Dance Company, Minneapolis)
1977
Autumn Fields (Ballet Theatre Contemporaine, Angers)
Untitled Work (Viola Farber Workshop, NYC)
Transfer (Nancy Hauser Dance Company, Minneapolis)
1979
Jeux Choréographique (Ballet Theatre Français and Larry Clark in Lyon, France)
Clearing (Solo for Ze’eva Cohen)
1980
Untitled Work (Janet Gillespie and Present Co.)
Just Correspondence (Duet/collaboration – Viola Farber and Jeff Slayton)
1981
Tea For Three (Duet for Viola Farber and Sarah Stackhouse)
Untitled Work (Solo for Susannah Payton-Newman)
Untitled Work (Viola Farber Workshop, NYC)
1982
Meanwhile Back In the City (Duet/collaboration Viola Farber and Jeff Slayton)
1983
Untitled Work (Duet/collaboration Viola Farber and Jeff Slayton)
1984
Last Waltz (Duet/collaboration Viola Farber and Jeff Slayton)
Day’s Return (Long Beach Summer School of Dance – CSULB)
Venom and Antidotes (London Contemporary Dance School)
Autumn Edge (London Contemporary Dance School)
1985
January – (Last performance of Viola Farber Dance Company – Dance made for television in Devon, England – Television South West London)
1987
Bank Holiday (London Contemporary Dance School)
Passing (London Contemporary Dance School)
Winter Rumors (Extemporary Dance Theatre, London)
Take-Away (Extemporary Dance Theatre, London)
Preludes (Nation Youth Dance Company, London)
1988
Preludes (New Dance Ensemble – Minneapolis, Minn.)
1989
Last Call (Solo for Douglas Nielsen)
1992
Ainsi de Suite (Duet/collaboration Viola Farber and Mathilde Monnier)
1994
Threestep (Ship Wreck) – (Duet/collaboration Viola Farber and Ralph Lemon
1996
Dreams of Wind and Dust (CE DE CE, Setubal, Portugal)
It’s Been A While (Duet/collaboration Viola Farber and Jeff Slayton)
Notable projects
1970s: Brazos River, video collaboration with Robert Rauschenberg and David Tudor
1974: Made site-specific dances at the Bronx Botanical Gardens and in the Staten Island Ferry waiting room.
Sunday Afternoon (1976) and Private Relations (1979): Farber choreographed these works with a more relaxed feel.
Teaching career
Adelphi University (1959–1967)
Cunningham Studio (1961–1969)
Bennington College (1967–1968)
Appointed by French government to artistic director of Centre National de Danse Contemporiane in Angers (1981–1983)
Sarah Lawrence College Director of Dance Department (1988–1998)
References
1931 births
1998 deaths
American choreographers
Black Mountain College alumni
American women choreographers
20th-century American dancers
American female dancers
20th-century American women
People from Heidelberg
Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Adelphi University faculty
Bennington College faculty
Sarah Lawrence College faculty