Simone Forti — What Remains in Motion
Simone Forti passed away on 29 July 2026, at the age of 91.
Born in Florence on 25 March 1935 into a Jewish family forced to flee Fascist Italy, Simone Forti grew up in the United States. In 1955, she turned to dance and studied with Anna Halprin, before taking composition classes with Robert Dunn at the Merce Cunningham Studio. There, she encountered several of the artists who would soon form the Judson Dance Theater. Her work ranges from early minimalist dance constructions to studies of animal movement, as well as News Animations, land portraits and Logomotion, a form of improvisation grounded in the resonance between movement and speech.
In 2000, Contredanse published Agnès Benoit’s French translation of Handbook in Motion under the title Manuel en mouvement. Part artist’s book, part account of a life and practice, it brings together memories, drawings, scores, poems, correspondence and reflections. In it, Simone Forti shares the events that nourished her and set her in motion throughout her life.
To mark the publication of the book, we had the joy of welcoming her to La Bellone in Brussels and later to the Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris for several performances. We remember the vividness and attentiveness of her presence, and a way of thinking that seemed to take shape before our eyes, in the immediate passage between body, speech and world.
Watch Simone Forti’s performance at the Théâtre de la Bastille here
