Simone Forti, the pioneering choreographer who bridged the worlds of performance, dance, and contemporary art, passed away at her home in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning at the age of 91, according to Jason Underhill, her longtime assistant and a trustee of the Simone Forti Art Trust. While the cause could not be confirmed, she was open about her years-long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Throughout her lengthy career, she mixed boundless curiosity with a formal rigor across a broad creative spectrum that included movement, painting, poetry, video, and even holography.
“The more you look, you will find her standing in the midst of nearly every avant-garde that hit New York and California over five decades at least,” said Glenn Phillips, chief curator at the Getty Research Institute, which acquired Forti’s archives in 2020, in an email to Hyperallergic.
