Valda Setterfield (b. 17 September 1934, Margate, Kent, England, United Kingdom) is a dancer and actress noted for his work as a soloist with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and her performances with and in the work of her husband, postmodern choreographer and director David Gordon. She has been described as Gordon's "muse".[1] Their son, playwright and actor Ain Gordon, has worked with Setterfield on a number of projects.
In England, Setterfield trained in ballet and performed in pantomimes with Ballet Rambert. In 1958 she came to the United States, following her good friend David Vaughan[2] and joined the company of James Waring, from 1958–1962, and then that of Merce Cunningham (1964–1974).
Setterfield appeared with the improvisational dance company The Grand Union and in the works of Katherine Litz, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman and JoAnne Akalaitis. She performed with David Gordon at The Living Theater and Judson Dance Theater. She is also a founding member of Pick Up Performance Co(s). In 1984 she received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie). She was featured artist in WNET/PBS Dance in America’s Beyond The Mainstream and in 1987 costarred with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Gordon’s Made in USA (WNET/PBS Great Performances.). In 1988 she returned to Rambert as guest artist in Gordon’s Mates.
She played Marcel Duchamp in the Bessie- and Obie Award-winning The Mysteries & What’s So Funny? (1990) and toured Europe and Japan with the White Oak Dance Project in 1992. She has acted in the work of her son, playwright Ain Gordon, at Soho Rep, and Dance Theater Workshop and played herself in his Art, Life & Show Biz at PS 122 and elsewhere. She has appeared in films by Yvonne Rainer, Brian de Palma and performed the choreography of Graciela Daniele in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite and Everyone Says I Love You.
In 2003, she danced at the 25th anniversary celebration of British Dance Umbrella, and in 2004/5 she performed in Dancing Henry Five at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis, Danspace in New York City, the ODC Theatre in San Francisco, and other venues. She played The Old Woman in Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs at London’s Barbican Theater, On the Boards (Seattle), and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival.[3] In 2006 she received a second Bessie for outstanding achievement. She has also played the role of Bertolt Brecht in Gordon’s Uncivil Wars: moving w/Brecht & Eisler.