Separate, But Equal: Merce Cunningham’s Creative Process

Since he started choreographing in the 1940s, Merce Cunningham has blazed a path of innovation resulting in nearly 200 dances that startle, mystify and delight audiences worldwide. Over its fifty-plus years, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company has been widely praised.

Choreographer Merce Cunningham received the 2005 Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo, was made an Officer of the French Legion of Honor in 2003, and awarded the National Medal of Arts in a ceremony at the White House in 1990. Remarkably, Cunningham achieved these and many other honors while staying true to his unique avant-garde approach to dance making.

Not interested in dance as storytelling, or in collaboration in the traditional sense, the choreographer, whom fans and friends alike refer to simply as “Merce,” long ago rejected established methods of creating dances in favor of constructing not just dances, but the accompanying music, through the use of “chance operations.”

A process developed over time with his long-time artistic associate, composer John Cage, chance operations have come to define Cunningham’s body of work. Influenced by Eastern philosophy, the I Ching, probability, chance, and collaboration, they developed methods of creating their portions of a work separately. It’s an unusual method of collaboration, but one still utilized by Merce today, even after the death of John Cage.

Cunningham’s choreography is conceived without reference to the music being composed to accompany it, without regard to the set design being built, or the costumes stitched for the dancers to wear. An agreement is made amongst the collaborators on how many sections there will be, and how long. None of the elements come together until the very end of the rehearsal process. Often, it is not until dress rehearsal that the dancers wear the costumes, dance to the music and move through the sets!

Coming together at even later point is the performance order of the individual sections, which is often determined through chance procedure—by tossing dice, coins or sticks and interpreting the results through use of the I Ching—just before the performance.

An interest in technology has led Cunningham to work with the computer program DanceForms, which he has used in making all his dances since 1991. The software can be used to illustrate the flexing of a joint, to determine the height or length of a jump, to reveal a dancer's exact location on stage. The software also allows for random order generation.

Merce Cunningham, who will be 89 this month, doesn’t come to the West Coast often. The April 25 and 26 Mondavi Center performances are the first since the company appeared on campus in 1968. Don’t miss this opportunity to see the extraordinary Merce Cunningham Dance Company bring to life this master’s highly honored avant-garde work.

When >

Fri • Apr 25, 2008 • 8:00 PM
Sat • Apr 26, 2008 • 8:00 PM

Pre-performance Lecture
Post-performance Q&A

Where >

Jackson Hall

Buy Tickets

General:
$43.00 / $37.00 / $29.00
Student:
$16.00 / $14.00 / $12.00
Child:
$16.00 / $14.00 / $12.00

Ticket prices do not reflect processing fees.

Series >

Dance