Philip Bither highlights some of Trisha Brown’s less-recognized but tremendously influential dance innovations, from aerial movement inventions to equipment-based performance.

A founding member of the Judson Dance Theater, Deborah Hay went from postmodern dance in Greenwich Village in the 1960s to living virtually off the grid in the 1970s, developing a pioneering practice that transforms the relationship between choreographer and dancer. Once an outlier, Hay is now a quiet but powerful force in dance—a “choreographer’s choreographer” whose work matters to the rest of us.

Where do we begin the conversation about the extraordinary contemporary dance movement afoot in Africa and some of its stellar young leaders? Will entrenched biases distort even fresh discussions about the continent? Dr. Joan Frosch looks at the work of choreographers Kettly Noël, Nelisiwe Xaba, and Mamela Nyamza.

Distrust of the body, says firebrand dancemaker Miguel Gutierrez, is part of the reason why dance is sometimes perceived as a second-class art form: “There’s an idea that to go into an exploration of the body is this indulgent, non-rational thing.” In a recent conversation, he discusses dance, the senses, the mind/body split, and his new performance, And lose the name of action.

As we consider new ways of looking at performance objects in a museum setting, we can’t ignore the ways physical movement has shaped them. The Walker’s acquisition of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s collection of costumes and decors has researcher Abigail Sebaly asking, “How do the various rubs, pills, and scuffs indicate an imprint of the movements that were performed in them?”

Turning 27 in 1980, Patrick Scully left the dance collective he called home to work independently and “explore what being gay meant to me as an artist.” A decade that began with optimism yielded surprises as political conservatism, the destruction of his downtown block, and AIDS rocked his world. For our continuing series reflecting on the Twin Cities in the 1980s, Scully shares his memories.

“If we compartmentalize the environmental question, the whole earth burns, so we might as well get everybody in any way that we can,” says Marc Bamuthi Joseph, whose new Walker-commissioned performance examines issues of environmental justice. red, black & GREEN: a blues uses hip-hop, spoken word, and audience participation to expand the discussion about how to define that “environmental question.”