THAT’S WHAT EVERYONE CALLS HIM. It doesn’t seem improper, we just do it. Merce’s work, Merce’s studio, Merce’s dancers, Merce’s performances. Christened Mercier Philip Cunningham, known as Merce. Why? Because the name so suits him, suggesting, as it does, both the element mercury-quicksilver, changeable, unpredictable-and the god Mercury, fleet-footed messenger from Olympus. Second, fans (and… Continue reading M E R C E
THE LEGACY TOUR: THE LAST “SOUNDDANCE”
In the buginning is the woid, in the muddle is the sound-dance, and therinofter you’re in the unbewised again…. James Joyce, Finnegan’s Wake DECEMBER 2011, THE KENNEDY CENTER “Sounddance” is Merce Cunningham’s iconic work, and now, this week, it will be performed for the last time in a theater where it has been at home… Continue reading THE LEGACY TOUR: THE LAST “SOUNDDANCE”
CHANCES ARE / “SPLIT SIDES”
The very first performances of Merce Cunningham’s “Split Sides” were at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where it returned during the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Legacy Tour, each night occasioning a series of dice tosses to select among the many possible combinations of set, costumes, music, lights, and choreography. Here is a diary of those… Continue reading CHANCES ARE / “SPLIT SIDES”
CHOREOGRAPHER AMONG THE PAINTERS
Dance is a visual art. Merce Cunningham Robert Rauschenberg: Express at the Beaubourg, Paris IN THIS grey scale canvas we see images surrounding the dancers of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Images of what? Racehorses with jockeys; men rappelling down a cliff; some harmonious and beautiful naked bodies; something that looks like a an underwater… Continue reading CHOREOGRAPHER AMONG THE PAINTERS
THE ANGLE OF INCIDENT
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Joyce Theater, December 2004 The things in the story are symbols, as it were, only of themselves. – Richard Howard, on Chekhov Experiencing one of Merce Cunningham’s Events is to see a seamless, intermissionless hour (or so) of dance excerpts, combined in a novel context; experiencing eight Events… Continue reading THE ANGLE OF INCIDENT
CUNNINGHAM’S DANCERS
PARIS–My last conversation with Merce Cunningham was at his apartment. There he graciously held what was in effect a series of farewells, courteous to the end. That afternoon I read this to him, from the Tao te Ching: Only he who is willing to give his body for the sake of the world is… Continue reading CUNNINGHAM’S DANCERS
BIRTHDAY MESOSTIC
HOW TO / MERCEHave an old soul, but a young heart.Be open to change.Love surprises.Embrace the new.Have friends both old and young.Study nature.Study Zen.Avoid making value judgements.Cast the I Ching.Read the Tao.Make choices by chance procedures,and regard all results with even-mindedness.Be clear.Be uncluttered.Have house plants.Live and work in every direction,so that whichever way you face… Continue reading BIRTHDAY MESOSTIC