William Forsythe

William Forsythe, along with Merce Cunningham and Noemie Lafrance, is one of the people who initiated my interest in the relationship between site-specific work and the built environment. A native New Yorker, he is currently the resident choreographer of the Frankfurt Ballet. The amazing thing is that his dancing style is not classical ballet -- it is deconstructed ballet. For instance, he will start with a movement, like a plié, and rearrange it so that the move is still considered ballet, but is refreshed and reworked. It's like taking pancake batter and pouring it into a waffle iron -- it's still the same food, it just looks and feels different. He is known for his dance notation technique and for using architectural elements, like a table in his pieces. I recently visited his website and saw that he has a piece at Ohio State University. I was prepared to find a way there, to see a legendary performance, but the piece is actually an interactive web project, Synchronous Objects. Check it out.