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In Memory of Merce

Lauren Humm Fakete | Oct 31, 2009 | there are 0 comments 0
Merce Cunningham. Photo: Mark Seliger, 2009. Courtesy of Cunningham Dance Foundation.

Merce Cunningham. Photo: Mark Seliger, 2009. Courtesy of Cunningham Dance Foundation.

Pivotal choreographer Merce Cunningham influenced so many people that his memorial event filled one of New York City's largest interior spaces last Wednesday.  Events in Honor of Merce - Memorial saw the 50,000 square-foot Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall hosting a dance world stunned with loss yet ardently celebrating an extraordinary life.  

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tags Modern, Performance, Merce Cunningham, Park Avenue Armory, memorial event (all tags)

Merce Cunningham Remembered

Laura Diffenderfer | Jul 28, 2009 | there are 0 comments 0

Merce Cunningham, who was routinely referred to as the world's greatest living choreographer, died last night in his Manhattan home at the age of 90. Born on April 16, 1919 in Centralia, Wash., Cunningham studied tap and ballroom dancing as a child with Maude Barrett, a retired vaudeville performer. He went on to attend the Cornish School in Seattle, where he began taking modern dance classes with Bonnie Bird, a young teacher who had danced with Martha Graham. In 1939, Cunningham attended the first West Coast session of the Bennington College modern dance summer school at Mills College, where he caught the eye of Graham. She invited Cunningham to come to New York to dance with her troupe and in September of that year, Cunningham became the second male to join the Martha Graham Dance Company, which he performed in as a soloist for five years.

Bird not only led Cunningham to Graham, but to a composer who would help Cunningham to form new ideas about dance and its relationship to music. While at the Cornish School, Bird introduced Cunningham to a young musician she had just hired to be her chief accompanist and music director, John Cage. Although Cunningham would collaborate with many important contemporary artists in the years to come, including Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol, it was his partnership with Cage that would prove most significant. In the 1940s, Cage and Cunningham began a long, fruitful relationship in both life and art that continued until Cage's death in 1992. Together, they proposed new and radical ideas, the most important being the notion that dance and music should be created separately and performed simultaneously, without supporting each other in the traditional way. The two creations would exist independently, producing a spontaneous relationship when combined for the first time--usually opening night.

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tags Ballet, Modern, Ballroom, Teacher, Enthusiast, Chance procedures, John Cage, Laura Diffenderfer, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham (all tags)

Merce Cunningham Dies

Laura Diffenderfer | Jul 27, 2009 | there are 0 comments 0
photo by Annie Leibovitz

photo by Annie Leibovitz

Merce Cunningham, frequently referred to as the greatest living choreographer, died last night in his Manhattan home at the age of 90.

Visit http://www.merce.org/mondayswithmerce.html to see a series of recent videos of his dancers and other dance-makers speaking about his influence as well as the artist himself talking about his work.

A longer remembrance of this great American artist to follow.

Did you ever see MCDC perform? Did you dance for Merce? Did you take Cunningham technique? What are your memories of Merce? Share your thoughts with us.

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tags Ballet, Modern, Enthusiast, Choreographer, Merce Cunningham, Modern Dance (all tags)

Another Monday with Merce

Laura Diffenderfer | May 07, 2009 | there are 0 comments 0
Derry Swan, Ashley Chen in

Derry Swan, Ashley Chen in "Fabrications" (1987). Photo by Tony Dougherty.

Hey Readers -
There is another great Mondays with Merce up! Check out this episode on technique, in which living legend Merce Cunningham talks about his warm-up, how to teach phrasing and the infinite variety of possibilities for human movement.
Enjoy!
Technique with Merce

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tags Modern, Enthusiast, Merce Cunningham (all tags)

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