Merce Cunningham (Centralia, Washington, 1919- ).
Dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham was a soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1939 to 1945, but his collaboration with composer John Cage from 1942 until Cage's death in 1992 was to be determinant for his choreography. Cage's use of chance, as well as the I Ching (Book of Changes) and Zen philosophy, transformed Cunningham's perception of dance. In 1948, the two men began applying their ideas at Black Mountain College, and in this multidisciplinary environment, Cunningham was to encounter future collaborators such as artists Willem and Elaine De Kooning (The Ruse of Medusa, 1948) and Robert Rauschenberg (Minutie, 1954) and composer David Tudor. In 1952, Cunningham participated with Cage, Tudor, Rauschenberg, Mary Caroline Richard, and Charles Olson in an untitled event now considered the first happening. Cunningham revolutionized the concept of ballet by rejecting the traditional narrative convention in favor of pure movement. Taking on the dance/music relationship, he separated the two components to give each one its complete autonomy. Although Cage and Cunningham determined the length of a piece together, they did not became aware of each other's respective works until the night before the performance. The dancers circulated without any rhythmic support other than an internal perception of time. Cunningham's friendships with avant-garde painters led him to renew the stage space by abandoning the ancient hierarchy that made the center the focus of the action. Drawing on Einstein's theory of relativity, he made each point in space perfectly equal and thus capable of presenting multiple events simultaneously. As of 1964, he accentuated the reliance on chance that prevailed in his choreographies by creating events that were conceived at the last minute, from different pieces, in order to adapt to unconventional sites (Event Museum, Vienna, 1964). In 1967, painter Frank Stella designed the sets for Scramble. The following year, Cunningham presented Rain Forest on a stage invaded by Andy Warhol's helium-inflated silver pillows and also choreographed Walkaround Time, in which Marcel Duchamp had Jasper Johns adapt the Large Glass to fill the stage space of the ballet. Johns was to succeed Rauschenberg as the dance company's artistic director, but Cunningham also collaborated with Minimalist artist Robert Morris for Canfield (1969) and Inlets (1977), and Bruce Nauman designed the sets for Tread in 1970. Mark Lancaster became the company's artistic advisor in 1980, followed by William Anastasi and Dove Bradshaw in 1984. Among the other major composers collaborating with Cunningham were Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, PierreBoulez, La Monte Young, and Jon Gibson. In 1974, with the help of Charles Atlas, he began using video as a means of further experimentation; he played with the audience's frontal viewpoint and filmed from multiple camera angles. He also used the electronic properties of video to create works such as Blue Studio (1975) and Torse (1977). In 1992, he used the computer to elaborate Enter, a piece presented at the Paris Opera.
Bibliography: Notes on Choreography, ed. Frances Starr (New York: Something Else Press, 1969). The Dancer and the Dance. Merce Cunningham in conversation with Jacqueline Lesschaeve (New York: M. Boyars, 1985).
About: Raphaël de Gubernatis, Cunningham (Arles: B. Coutaz, 1990). James Klosty (ed.), Merce Cunningham (New York: Saturday Review Press, 1975). Richard Kostelanetz (ed.), Merce Cunningham, Dancing in Space and Time (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1992). Susan Sontag, Cage-Cunningham-Johns: Dancers on a Plane (New York: Knopf, 1990).