Artist's Wild Roller-Skate Dance 'Pelican' Reimagined

Robert Rauschenberg's avant-garde dance piece, 'Pelican,' first staged in 1963, has been brought back to life by the Trisha Brown Dance Company. The original work, known for its performers dancing on roller skates while wearing parachute-like wings, was reimagined last week for a benefit performance at a Brooklyn roller rink.

The revival involved extensive archival research into Rauschenberg and Trisha Brown's collections, combined with new choreography by Tara Lorenzen and the piece's three dancers. The original 'Pelican' was an unexpected creation, born from a typo in an arts festival program that led Rauschenberg to choreograph the dance.

Archival materials, including photos and notes, guided the reconstruction. The dancers relied on their training to navigate the roller skates, with the performance climaxing in a unified moment of three bodies. The dance is described as an absurdist love story, embodying Rauschenberg's sentiment that dance possesses an energy that makes one glad to be alive.