Ralph Lemon

MoMA Dance is a new series of monographs exploring dance makers in the twenty-first century. Each volume focuses on a single contemporary choreographer, presenting a rich collection of newly commissioned texts along with a definitive catalogue of the artist’s projects. Accessible, informative, and inspiring, they are indispensible guides to contemporary dance for fans and scholars alike.
Born in Cincinnati and raised in Minnesota, Ralph Lemon is one of the most significant figures to emerge from New York’s downtown dance community in the 1980s. His politically resonant and deeply personal projects are investigations of race, identity, memory, and mourning. A polymath and self-described conceptualist, he combines dance with visual art, film, and ethnography, creating works that live on the theater stage, in print, and in the museum. The book features texts by scholars and performers, an original photoessay by Lemon, and an extensive chronology, greatly enhancing the understanding and appreciation of Lemon’s boundary-pushing body of work.