Merce Cunningham

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Cunningham as a dancer in his early years

Merce Cunningham (born April 16, 1919 in Centralia , Washington , † July 26, 2009 in New York City ) was an American dancer and choreographer . At the beginning of his career he was considered by many to be a very talented dancer, but who wasted his talent on daring dance experiments. Today his position as one of the leading figures in contemporary dance is undisputed.

Life

Cunningham was born in Centralia , a small town in Washington state. His father was a lawyer. His interest in dance developed rather by chance and was neither specifically encouraged nor prevented by his parents. At the age of 11 he learned tap dancing from Maud Barrett, who had opened a dance school in his hometown. With her and her daughter Marjorie, Cunningham trundled through California, where they sometimes appeared as an interim program in silent films.

After graduating from high school, he went to Seattle and took acting classes at the Cornish College of the Arts , but then switched to dance. The dance class was headed by Bonnie Bird , a former Martha Graham dancer . A year later, John Cage was hired as a pianist and répétiteur for the dance department. With Cage, Cunningham met his future work and life partner. Cage introduced the dance students to the relationship between dance and music through unorthodox ideas. In 1939, before completing his studies, Cunningham moved to New York and took on numerous solo roles with the Martha Graham Dance Company . In 1940 he studied classical dance at the School of American Ballet in New York . In 1942 he began to design his own choreographies with music by John Cage. As time went on, the pair's dance and music became more and more independent, and in the early 1950s the only link between dance and music was the simultaneity of their performance. The sets for Cunningham were often designed by the painter Robert Rauschenberg .

Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Shiraz Art Festival in 1972

Cunningham followed in the choreography the methods of Cage, which this used for his compositions . Any movement could follow any other and any movement was allowed. Like Cage, Cunningham used random processes in the arrangement . Both wanted to imitate the way nature works. The use of chance freed Cunningham from the limitations of habit and intuition and opened up possibilities of movement that he would not otherwise have found.

In 1953 he founded the Merce Cunningham Dance Company , for which John Cage and David Tudor wrote the music. This provided a forum for the further development and presentation of ideas that shook the foundations of traditional dance. Ten years later, the Merce-Cunningham-Dance-Company went on a six-month world tour; many guest performances had to be extended because of the great success. In America itself, where the troupe initially only made a few appearances, the worldwide positive response led to increased interest. The Cunningham Company has since toured the United States regularly.

In his performances, Cunningham was not limited to traditional venues, but also performed his choreographies in museums, stadiums and in public places, for example on St. Mark's Square in Venice or in Grand Central Station in New York. In 1972 Cunningham performed at the Shiraz arts festival in front of the ruins of Persepolis . Cunningham also experimented with film and camera since the mid-1970s and created choreographies specially tailored to the possibilities of film technology. Later he also used the computer program LifeForms for his work.

Cunningham's works are found in the repertoire of ballet and dance theater companies around the world today.

Merce Cunningham died on July 26th, 2009 in Manhattan / New York City.

Works

Rune (first performed August 14, 1959) lasts 25 minutes and is a dance for six dancers (four women and two men). The music comes from Christian Wolff and can be played with two pianos or with an orchestra. Rune consists of five parts of approx. 5 minutes each. Cunningham planned a series of choreographic blocks here, which he could string together and vary as desired. There should be both stillness and action in each five-minute block. The blocks should stand side by side, unconnected. However, since the necessary rehearsal effort could not be applied, the piece was never realized in its original concept. It is the only work that Cunningham had meticulously noted down on approx. 40 pages, described during a flight from America to Europe. A reconstruction of the work based on these records at the beginning of the 1980s nevertheless turned out to be extremely laborious and difficult.

Winterbranche (first performance March 21, 1964) is a dance about falling. Here Cunningham tried a lot with Steve Paxton in advance . In addition, there was the idea of ​​not leading the dancers to their place on the stage dancing in a kind of entrée, but that they should simply go to their place, dance there and step down again. The stage design (Bob Rauschenberg) should be designed in black according to Cunningham's idea.

RainForest (first performed March 9, 1968) is called a character dance by Cunningham . Right at the beginning there is a slow duo, to which another dancer is added. Although only three dancers act, this piece appears to be danced by six dancers, only three of whom are visible at a time. Cunningham got the inspiration for the set from an exhibition in which Andy Warhol had placed silver balloons ( Silver Clouds ) in pillow form. With Warhol's consent, Cunningham used these pillows, which were filled with helium and partly fixed to the floor with a string, and partly floated on the stage at different heights. An idea by Warhol to have the dancers perform naked was not realized by Cunningham. Cunningham still wanted to show something like "torn skin", which was then implemented by Jasper Johns with slitted jerseys.

Walkaround Time (premiered March 10, 1968) lasts 49 minutes and was designed for eight dancers from the start. It consists of two parts and an entre'acte, which originally comes from Relâche (never listed) and was inserted here. The partly changing music comes from David Behrmann. The choreography was also made into a film by Charles Atlas .

In 1973 the piece Un jour ou deux was created with a decor by Jasper Johns , which was revived in Paris in 2011. In 1991 he wrote the play Beach Birds , which was performed again in Paris in 2010.

Cunningham had decreed that the dance company should go on a two-year farewell tour after his death and then be dissolved. This world tour ended on December 31, 2011 in New York. The property of the Cunningham Dance Foundation and the copyrights to the works were transferred to the Merce Cunningham Trust , which grants performance rights to the works of Cunningham to leading dance companies.

honors and awards

Exhibition and awards

  • 2011: Merce Cunningham. Drawings and video recordings . Wiesbaden Museum , Wiesbaden
  • the Ballett am Rhein showed the piece "Pond Way" in 2013 and "Scenaraio" in 2014
  • For the international Merce Cunningham Centenary 2019, the new production of his piece "Nigh Wandering" is part of the program

literature

  • Sabine Huschka: Merce Cunningham and modern dance: body concepts, choreography and dance aesthetics . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-1668-8 .

Web links

Commons : Merce Cunningham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evelyn Finger: Athlete of God. On the death of Merce Cunningham. In: ZEIT online. July 28, 2009, accessed January 28, 2014 .
  2. ^ Sabine Huschka: Merce Cunningham and modern dance. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-1668-8 .
  3. ↑ a b Kerstin Evert: DanceLab - Contemporary Dance and new technologies . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003, ISBN 3-8260-2428-1 .
  4. ^ Honorary Members: Merce Cunningham. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 2, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Angela Reinhardt: Praemium Imperiale for Merce Cunningham. tanznetz.de, October 8, 2005, accessed on January 28, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Cunningham, Merce
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American dancer and choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Centralia , Washington
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 2009
Place of death New York City