Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio (S)

Made 1965 / 1983 With Kenneth King and Phoebe Neville. “Kenneth King’s Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio (1964) is an essay in Pop Art style, in which all the elements listed in the title have equal emphasis. Phoebe Neville, dressed in bra, girdle, curlers, and toe shoes, marches across the floor on pointe with a radio clasped to her ear. King, dressed in undershirt and shorts and a black tie, does calisthenics. Both spill colored solutions from the coffee cup all over themselves, embrace one another emotionlessly, and mechanically caress their own bodies, while rock and roll songs comment ironically on the action and a taped voice explains the dance’s structure. Mekas, recording a 1965 performance of this key postmodern dance, has translated it into an extraordinary film …” – Sally Banes, Village Voice, Oct. 18, 1983.