Park Cafeteria
Performance with Limited Dance CoAugust 1975
Lynn MacRitchie (LM) (second left) with Sylvia Stevens,
Jacky Lansley, Judith Katz, Sally Potter and Rose English
LM, LM, and LM (centre) with Judith Katz (L) and Sylvia Stevens (R) – Photographer (all) Geoff White
Then working as Limited Dance Company, Sally Potter and Jacky Lansley were invited to take part in The Performance Show at the Serpentine Gallery in August 1975. They in turn invited fellow artists Lynn MacRitchie (LM), Rose English, Judith Katz and Sylvia Stevens to join them in creating a collaborative work. This became “Park Cafeteria” a site specific, durational performance taking place over one week.
The group researched the history of the Serpentine Gallery and discovered that the building had originally been a cafeteria. This led to the idea of making music together as a ladies’ orchestra, with each member playing whatever instrument they could manage, performing together in the gallery every afternoon. At other times, members presented separate performances, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, in the gallery or anywhere in the surrounding park. No matter where these individual works might have taken them, the members of the Ladies Orchestra reassembled again every day at the appointed time in the gallery to perform together.