Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham (born April 16, 1919 in Centralia, Washington, United States) is an American dancer and choreographer.

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Biography

He studied tap dance in his youth, but Cunningham received his first formal dance and theatre training at the Cornish College of the Arts where he met his future lover John Cage, who was a piano accompanist for dance classes. Later he moved to New York and studied at the American School of Ballet. From 1939 to 1945 he was a soloist in Martha Graham's dance company, choreographing Paul Bowles' light opera The Wind Remains in 1943. He presented his first New York solo concert with John Cage in April 1944 and founded the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the summer of 1953 with its first performances at Black Mountain College. His company first publicly performed at Freer Gym in Urbana, IL in 1953 .

Inspired by Albert Einstein's words "there are no fixed points in space," Cunningham developed a method of creating known as "Chance Operations," which he refined in close collaboration with Cage. Influenced by Zen and Dadaism, Cunningham would create a number of dance phrases and use methods such as dice, cards, or coins to determine order, number of repetitions, direction and spatial relation. Often he would also invite a musician to create a score and an artist to create a visual environment while he created the movement. Each would work separately and would unite the elements for the first time on stage before an audience.

Chance Operations

John Cage and I became interested in the use of chance in the 50's. There were a number of things, I think, that came about that time about chance. I think one of the very primary things that happened then was the publication of the "I Ching," the Chinese book of changes, in which you, from which you, can cast your fortune: the hexagrams.

Cage took it to work, as, in his way of making compositions then; and he used the idea of the 64 -the number of the hexagrams, 64- to say that you had 64, for example, sounds; then you could cast, by chance, to find which sound first appeared, cast again, to say which sound came second, cast again, so that it's done by, in that sense, chance operations -the continuity. Instead of finding out what you think should follow -say a particular sound- what did the I Ching suggest.

Well, I took this also for dance.

I was working on a title called, “Untitled Solo,” and I had made -this was chance, using the chance operations- a series of movements written on scraps of paper for the legs and the arms, the head, all different. And it was done not to the music but with the music of Christian Wolff.”

— Merce Cunningham, Merce Cunningham: A lifetime of Dance, 2000

Although considered an abrogation of artistic responsibility by some, Cunningham was thrilled by a process that arrives at works that could never have been created through traditional collaboration. This does not mean, however, that Cunningham holds every piece created in this fashion is a masterpiece. Those dances that do not "work" are quickly dropped from repertory, while those that do are celebrated as serendipitous discoveries. In this fashion chance operations are similar to improvisation, used as a tool of creation by many artists.

Another of Cunningham's innovations was the development of what might be called "non-representative" dance which simply emphasizes movement: in Cunningham's choreography, dancers do not necessarily represent any historical figure, emotional situation, or idea.

Although well into his eighties and no longer able to dance, Cunningham continues to choreograph with the aid of computer software, working with musical groups including Sigur Rós and Radiohead to create soundtracks for his projects.

Cunningham was on the development team for the dance software originally called Lifeforms, now called Danceforms; the software allows the user to choreograph on a computer.

See also

• Modern dance
• Postmodern dance
• 20th century concert dance
• List of dance companies
• Happening

Further reading

• Bremser, M. (Ed) (1999) Fifty Contemporary Choreographers. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10364-9
• Cunningham, M. and Lesschaeve, J. (1992) The Dancer and the Dance. Marion Boyars Publishers. ISBN 0-7145-2931-1
• Vaughn, David (1999) Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years. Aperture. ISBN 0-89381-863-1
• Kostelanetz, R. (1998) Merce Cunningham: Dancing in Space and Time. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80877-3

Brown, Carolyn (2007) "Chance and Circumstance Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham". Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 978-0-394-40191-1 Biography 53750

External links

• Merce Cunningham Dance Company
• PBS:American Masters biography
• Kennedy Center biography
• American Ballet Theater biography
• Merce Cunningham at IMDb