Radical Juxtapositions, 1961-2002

by Charles Atlas, Sid Sachs, Peggy Phelen

Radical Juxtapositions is the first book to present both artistic facets of Yvonne Rainer, dance innovator and award-winning filmmaker. One of the most respected artists of the twentieth century, Rainer broke new ground as part of the Judson Dance Theater in the early 1960s, where she created choreography that connected directly to life and utilized everyday movements--very much in sync with the contemporaneous aesthetics of Happenings, Pop art and Minimalism. When dance failed to provide her with avenues through which to broach political subject matter, Rainer became a radical filmmaker. In this monograph, her work is examined from various vantage points by noted dance, film and art historians, with Rainer herself contributing an essay on how aging has affected her work and life. Including the score for her new work, After Many a Summer Dies the Hybrid , this volume is completed by an annotated biography and a full chronology and filmography.

151 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Charles Atlas (born Angelo Siciliano) was an Italian-American bodybuilder best remembered as the developer of a bodybuilding method and its associated exercise program which spawned a landmark advertising campaign featuring his name and likeness; it has been described as one of the longest-lasting and most memorable ad campaigns of all time.

Atlas trained himself to develop his body from that of a "scrawny weakling", eventually becoming the most popular bodybuilder of his day. He took the name "Charles Atlas" after a friend told him that he resembled the statue of Atlas on top of a hotel in Coney Island and legally changed his name in 1922. He marketed his first bodybuilding course with health and fitness writer Dr. Frederick Tilney in November 1922. The duo ran the company out of Tilney's home for the first six months. In 1929, Tilney sold his half of the business to advertising man Charles P. Roman and moved to Florida. Charles Atlas Ltd. was founded in 1929 and, as of 2020, continues to market a fitness program for the "97-pound weakling" (44 kg). The company is now owned by Jeffrey C. Hogue.