Simone Forti, Performance for 'Judson Now', September 2012. Photo: Ian Douglas
With deep sadness, we mourn the loss of groundbreaking choreographer, movement artist, and UCLA instructor Simone Forti. Trained by dance trailblazer Anna Halprin in the 1950s, Forti debuted her seminal Dance Constructions in New York in the early ’60s. Inspired by children’s play, Dance Constructions invited performers to respond to ready-made objects that prompted improvisational actions such as leaning, climbing, and whistling. In doing so, Forti expanded the notion of what dance could be.
“This small, radical group of works by Forti was like a pebble tossed into a large, still, and complacent pond,” wrote experimental dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton in the book Simone Forti: Thinking with the Body. “The ripples radiated.”
Forti’s influential career spanned more than 60 years and included 17 years teaching in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD), beginning in 1998. At UCLA, she taught Beginning Improvisation, Advanced Improvisation, Advanced Choreography, and Advanced Interdisciplinary Composition. An influential and beloved member of the WACD community, Forti was a generous mentor to generations of students, serving on numerous thesis committees for graduate students pursuing masters degrees in dance and choreographic inquiry.
In 2012, her work was featured in the Hammer Museum at UCLA’s inaugural Made in L.A. biennial. During her residency at the museum, she hosted a series of movement workshops and revisited her 1986 performance Logomotion, an improvisational dance and narrative practice that joined bodily movement with words. With Forti's guidance, participants combined dance and storytelling.
In 2023, the Venice Biennale presented her with its prestigious Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in dance.
“Simone’s influence stretches beyond categorizations and institutions,” said Lionel Popkin, UCLA Arts dean and professor of choreography. “Her work contained profound observations within deceptively succinct constructions. She took on the need for serious fun and endless questioning with joy. Her students, and really all of us, were so fortunate to have her at UCLA for so many extraordinary years.”
In 1999, Forti’s mother, Milka Forti, established the Forti Family Endowed Scholarship in Dance to support students specializing in dance improvisation. Today, the scholarship continues to honor Simone Forti’s enduring influence, ensuring that her legacy lives on not only through the work she created, but also through the dancers and artists she inspired.
Aparna Sharma, Chair
UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance